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01 Waterpower

Pelton turbine: System Erlach

The Pelton turbine System Erlach has up to six nozzles on a horizontal shaft. That means more power, lower costs and easier maintenance. It was invented by Josef Erlach. Leading turbine manufacturers have licensed it and developed it further. In 2022 the first one went into operation in a large power plant.

Josef Erlach in a checked shirt and Prof. Thomas Staubli in a black shirt stand at the test rig in front of a horizontal Pelton turbine with six feed pipes.
Josef Erlach and Prof. Thomas Staubli at the test rig in Lucerne, 2009

Pelton turbine System Erlach

02 Journal · Talk on 20 November 2026

Engineering with AI: Making Errors, Keeping the Lessons

Philipp Erlach will speak at Viennahydro in Laxenburg near Vienna on 20 November 2026. The talk is about what an AI can calculate in turbine design, and about what people make of published knowledge.

Audience in several rows of chairs in the hall, tall windows in the background.
Rows of chairs in a hall with parquet flooring. On every chair lies a yellow leaflet that reads: Grüß Gott, we’re Erlach & Erlach.
Josef Erlach in a dark jacket stands smiling in front of the pale yellow building of the conference centre.
Panel table with microphones and the name cards List and Erlach.
Empty panel in front of patterned wallpaper, four name cards on the table: List, Erlach, Karakolcu, Felix.
A photographer stands in the hall with his camera, next to him participants sit at a table with yellow leaflets.
Hall with a screen showing a slide of the talk. In front of it the audience and a photographer.
View across the fully occupied hall with parquet flooring and tall windows.
View from behind over the heads of two listeners towards the screen.
Screen with a slide of the talk: New Pelton Concept, Demonstration of the functions, below it a sectional drawing of the turbine.
Viennahydro 2012 in Laxenburg, 22 November 2012: the audience1 / 10

About the paperMore about the talkGo to Viennahydro 2026

03 Holding

Hello! We’re Erlach and Erlach.Watchmakers for a new time.

We build companies and ideas in waterpower, advertising and food.

Left: Philipp Erlach carries his father Josef on his shoulders in a workshop. Right, decades earlier: Josef Erlach carries the young Philipp on his shoulders.
Philipp and Josef ErlachJosef and Philipp Erlach

Erlach & Erlach is also a holding company. We hold stakes in Vier für Texas, an agency in Frankfurt, and in La Marchante, the company behind the tea brand TeeFee.

04 Contact

Let’s talk.

About the Pelton turbine, a licence or a new idea: Philipp Erlach answers personally.

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