Now you can take the thyssenkrupp test tower home with you thanks to 3D printing

Just in time for International 3D Printing Day (appropriately enough on 3 December), the test tower is now offering a very special souvenir: the very first mini test tower to be made using the cutting-edge Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) 3D printing process.

The mini test tower, which is just 127.94 mm (5 inches) high and weighs just 15 grams, is the result of a joint project between the test tower and our colleagues at the thyssenkrupp TechCenter Additive Manufacturing, based in Mülheim an der Ruhr, germany. The fledgling start-up uses a sintering machine to manufacture highly-complex, interlocking components, including parts with internal structures. In contrast to conventional processes like casting, they can be produced in a single step, with no need for any tools.

Made in Germany

"The 3D-printed mini test tower is a symbol of thyssenkrupp's ability to innovate", says test tower Marketing Manager Christiane von der Trappen. "Our visitors have been looking for a test tower they could take home with them for a long time. Here at the test tower, we test the elevator systems of the future. The MULTI is revolutionizing the elevator sector and will appear on the German Pavilion at Expo 2020 in Dubai, so we really wanted to offer our visitors an unusual souvenir."

You can find a video about what makes selective laser sintering so special and how we used it to make our 3D-printed mini test tower on our homepage atwww.testturm.de. The 3D-printed model is available in a strictly limited edition, and each mini test tower carries its own unique serial number.

Ournew online ticket shopopened in August and has now expanded to include souvenirs. You can now order most of our test tower souvenirs online as well as tickets. Test tower season tickets will also be available from the online shop from January at the latest.

Interest in Germany's highest viewing platform, located at the top of the thyssenkrupp test tower, shows no sign of tailing off any time soon. As of October 2019, around 400,000 visitors have taken in the panoramic view of the Black Forest since the platform opened in October 2017. This year saw opening hours significantly extended for the first time, allowing thousands more visitors to enjoy the extraordinary vista from 232 metres (761 ft).

Extended Christmas opening hours

The test tower will again be open for the whole of this year's Rottweil Christmas Market, allowing visitors from far and wide to combine a stroll through the town-centre with a whistle-stop tour of the elevator testing tower. We are also looking forward to welcoming visitors to the viewing platform on Boxing Day until 6 p.m and New Year's Eve until 2 p.m. As in previous years, the tower will be closed on New Year's Day. You can find updated details of our opening hours in the ticket booking section of the test tower's website, at

https://shop.testturm.de/thyssenkrupp/tickets.htm.

In addition to our regular opening hours - Fridays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. - in 2020 we will again be opening up the tower during the week for local school holidays, on public holidays, and on special occasions such as "Fasnet-Dienstag" (Shrove Tuesday). As in 2019, the test tower will open its doors between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. on these extra days.