Kässbohrer — 2023-02-10
Members Corner
For the transport of vehicles, specific vehicle transporters are usually used, which are suitable for either cars or trucks, for example. The company Kässbohrer Transport Technik GmbH, based in Eugendorf near Salzburg, has overcome the system limitations that have applied up to now. For some time now, in close cooperation with a leading Scandinavian logistics company, it has been developing a completely new vehicle transporter concept that can do everything in one - namely transport cars, trucks and buses!
"The idea originated from a technical spin. We were looking for an innovative and also ecologically sustainable solution to a decades-old problem. With Kässbohrer as a special vehicle manufacturer, we have now found a solution," says the person responsible at the Scandinavian-based logistics company. "Until now, our transport flows for heavy vehicles such as trucks or bus chassis were completely independent and separate from our transport flows for passenger cars. This resulted in correspondingly high transport costs, but also environmental costs. Previous attempts to combine the different cargoes failed because the loading factor was too low and because of unsolved technical problems."
Together with the logistics company from Scandinavia and the development engineers from Kässbohrer, both have now been achieved. Namely, to design a vehicle that on the one hand covers extreme technical requirements in terms of strength and payload. On the other hand, it also offers the necessary economic efficiency in that not only heavy vehicles can be loaded optimally, but in the future pure passenger car transports can also be carried out with maximum loading factor. "We have succeeded in this through several innovations at once," as Ing. Horst Fößl, head of the technology department at Kässbohrer, explains: "The decisive factor for the success is and was certainly that we redefined the system limits of the vehicle transporter in this project from the very beginning. This begins with the maximum length of the vehicle at 25.25m and ends with a high permissible total weight of more than 60t for this vehicle concept. This vehicle consists of three parts: the special motor vehicle body, a Kässbohrer dolly vehicle developed for this application and a special semi-trailer. A particular technical challenge was to flexibly design the second level of the vehicle transporter, the hydraulically adjustable lifting platform. This can be moved and shortened to a practical minimum when transporting trucks and provides the required loading length when transporting cars. Likewise, we want to provide drivers with a high-quality product that is easier to operate and also has a long product life cycle."
Before the innovation from Salzburg will be on the roads in Scandinavia for SCANIA and VOLVO, there are still a few tasks to be completed, one of which is the so-called bad road testing at the test site in cooperation with the Magna company, where a prototype vehicle is put through its paces once again after construction is complete. Another task is the entire technical calculation and documentation so that such a special vehicle can then also be approved for road traffic without any problems. However, the majority of the work has already been completed, as Dr. Markus Guggenbichler, the responsible for the overall project at Kässbohrer, can assure us.
Accordingly, the motivation both in Eugendorf and at the cooperation partner is also high to prove the advantages of the new vehicle in practice in the foreseeable future. Due to the mixed loads, which can be carried out with the TRIPLEX vehicle transporter, resources are saved on the way there and back. Since each route can be carried out individually and differently loaded, fewer empty kilometers are generated. Every truck and car that can be transported with our products in a more environmentally friendly and economical way is a gain. From the beginning, the transport of battery-powered vehicles was also considered in this project. In this way, we are contributing to more environmentally friendly transport logistics. We achieve this with CO2-free painting and a photovoltaic system with which we generate our own electricity. In addition to projects already underway in the area of zero emission, such as electric or gas trucks, we are already making a sustainable contribution to the environment. Furthermore, we offer a refurbishment for our superstructures - EXTRA-Life. In this case, the vehicle is brought up to the latest technical standards and complies with the Road Traffic Regulations (StVO). Through the refurbishment, our customers receive a vehicle that is technically overhauled and can be used beyond the life of the tractor. We are always looking for better and more sustainable solutions to improve ourselves and our environment. More to come in the near future!