Tihueca
| Industry | Manufacturing |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1970 |
| Headquarters | , |
Number of locations | 6 |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Products | Amusement rides, roller coasters, transportation |
| Divisions | Tihueca Rides AMAA (Amusement Manufacturers Association of Aztaco) |
| Subsidiaries | Tihueca Rides International |
The Tihueca Consortium is a designer-manufacturer partnership in the amusement park industry best known for the development and production of roller coasters and other thrill rides. It offers its services to amusement parks and themed resorts around the world through international offices, one on each continent, with the revenue generated from sales of its signature rides and contracts for new custom built installations accounting for most of the company's revenue. In recent decades, Tihueca has diversified with its entrance into transportation contracting by applying its ride-building expertise to design and construct streetcar, monorail and aerial tramway systems for public and private transportation services. The name associated with the business is a syllabic initialism for Ticemetzalan Huetzcani Callahma, Nahuatl for "International Amusement Engineers".
The main business of the Tihueca consortium is the design and construction of various types of rides for amusement parks. Some installations are clones of a previous Tihueca design, purposefully contracted by the client to reduce the price tag of development costs and as a risk mitigation strategy to reduce the potential for incidents by copying a design with a good safety record. However, the majority of Tiheuca's rides are commissioned new by a specific park to fit a theme and are custom built to the local topography and conditions of a particular installation site, making most of the rides designed and installed by the company entirely unique designs with only one exemplar. The company offers ongoing maintenance services to its clients at a reduced rate in order to foster good business relations and motivate clients to do repeat business with the company.
History
The Tihueca Consortium, initially the Tihueca Corporation, was established in 1970 as a minor design firm with only five employees in Cihuacoatl, Angatahuaca. The company made its business by designing amusement park rides in the Aztaco Republic in Zacapican, and selling these to the parks which would then finance the construction according to the blueprints provided by Tihueca. In 1972, independently from Tihueca, the calpolli association Amusement Manufacturers Association of Aztaco would be established by the metalworkers and wood shops that had specialized in servicing the amusement industry's demand for construction of its rides. Tihueca design corporation quickly approached this organization with the mutually beneficial offer of entering into business with one another, which would strengthen the hand of both the design firm and the manufacturers association in negotiations with the parks, financially benefitting both firms. Through the 1970s, Tihueca expanded its design team and developed a reputation for innovative ride designs which would both advance the industry and appeal to clients, many of whom would be willing to pay a premium for the combination deal of Tihueca's design services and the AMAA's manufacturing expertise.
In 1979, the Tihueca Consortium was formally established with an exclusivity contract binding the Tihueca design firm and the AMAA manufacturers together under one corporate umbrella organization. By this time, Tihueca had risen to the top of the domestic amusement market and had little room left for expansion within the limited demand of its native Zacapican, pushing the company onto the path of international expansion. The company began to market to parks across the world through its new subsidiary Tihueca Rides International, a conventional corporation under the Tihueca Consortium which would allow the company to expand into international markets, opening up its global offices and even offshoring some manufacturing roles, although the majority of custom production would remain with the AMAA specialists in Zacapican. The Tihueca Consortium is now a leader in the amusement industry, with the quality of its design and installation services widely recognized and even held up as a selling point by the parks which purchase Tihueca rides.
Structure
Products
Amusement Rides
The business model of Tihueca rides primarily on prefabricated roller coasters, which are designed custom to fit a site and then built in pieces within Tihueca's AMAA production division (sometimes subcontracted by the International division) using specialized equipment and industrial practices before being assembled on site. This cuts down on the production and installation costs, increases the speed with which a new ride can be installed, and generally provides a better quality of construction than an on-site build. This is especially the case with the iconic wooden roller coasters for which the company is well known, which utilize this prefabrication technique to offer a higher quality construction and superior characteristics to the structure and the ride quality that would not be attainable through an on-site manual construction. The company provides both steel and wooden roller coasters using this prefabrication method, while water rides such as a rapids style ride have more elements built on-site due to the nature of these structures.
Tihueca was a pioneer in the use of hydraulic launch systems widespread in the industry today. Such a mechanical device allows a roller coaster's cars to reach high speeds in a very short amount of time from a standstill, creating a greater thrill to the experience. Some of Tihueca's launch systems are designed to catapult roller coaster cars some 250 kilometers per hour within only a few seconds. The designers continuously establish records for height drops and other impressive feats of engineering such as larger and wider vertical loops and faster rides in an effort to maintain their position at the top of the market and offer their clients new and interesting rides to appeal to parkgoers.
Ferris wheels and swing rides are a supplementary portion of Tihueca's amusement portfolio. Many of these were based on new designs, given the age and banality of the common ferris wheel, and would feature structures with multiple wheels. A number of Tihueca's early ferris wheels are now defunct, having reached the end of their service lives. Relatively simple park structures such as observation towers and vertical drop rides represent the lower end of the complexity and cost spectrum for Tihueca's product offerings. However, some vertical drop towers designed by the company integrate aspects of a swing ride, combining the vertical drop with the rotary swing assembly for a new kind of ride. The company first built aerial tramways as a relatively sedate ride which would double as transportation infrastructure within the park.