A second life for vehicles
Published: 01 June, 2008
Acquiring a new fire appliance is a complicated affair. Not only has the initial acquisition price to be taken into consideration, but also maintenance, operational and end-of-life costs. And if that wasn’t enough, in addition there is the question of what to do with your old appliances. Ann-Marie Knegt finds out what the trends are in different parts of Europe.
According to fire appliance builder Gary Smith, from The Vehicle Application Centre (TVAC) in Padworth Cambridgeshire (UK), while most brigades sell their old vehicles through auction houses to countries where brigades have less money to spend, some are also sold to industrial plants. “The average lifetime of a vehicle chassis is between 10 and 15 years depending on the type of life it’s had. However, our vehicle bodies can easily go for at least two lifetimes. Lancashire Fire and Rescue has recently bought a series of new DAF LF chassis and has asked us to take off their old TVAC bodies, refurbish these and put them onto the new chassis.”
Lancashire’s B-type watertender bodies are made from moulded polyester – also referred to as GRP (Glass Re-enforced Polyester) – and there are no metal components in the superstructure.
Smith’s supplier of moulded polyester is the Dutch company Plastisol, which developed a lamination system enabling the structure to absorb energy. When the appliance has a collision therefore, rather than buckle the GRP absorbs the impact locally without transmitting it further.
The water tank capacity on the tenders varies from a thousand to two thousand litres of water and when they arrive at TVAC for refurbishment, Smith’s team will carry out stringent visual checks to ensure there are no cracks in the tanks. They then get re-tested, inspected and recertified for pressure capabilities and after that TVAC will warrant the body for its second life.
Smith explains that for the complicated engineering parts of the appliance, TVAC is co-operating with Hale Europe and together they offer a refurbishment package for pumps and proportioning systems.
Smith sees some real benefits in moulded polyester. “The chances of re-using an aluminium body for frontline operation is usually remote, because aluminium superstructures do not last as long as our bodies.”
TVAC’s site has got full sized spray booths enabling the company to fully strip down and rebuild the body to the level that the client requires and he emphasizes that his clients come from all over the world.
Smith explains that there is about a 30 per cent weight saving when using GRP, allowing for more equipment to be stored. Furthermore, in combination with a moulded watertank, there is a 30 per cent increase in volume for storage.
“For slides we use a specialist supplier, but half the problem with slides are not the slides themselves, but the fact that a metal body contracts and expands over its lifetime. The Plastisol body is rigid from day one until the last day of its life. It will not expand or contract and therefore the slides and shutters we use never seem to have a problem.”
Smith believes that aluminium will deteriorate over time and that there is a possibility of leaks and movement in the watertank. “Basically I regard it as an old fashioned way of building vehicles. Tank leakage used to be common when people just used galvanised steel tanks, but now most people have started using plastic (GRP) water tanks. even when they don’t have a polyester body. We mould the tank onto the body – which is mounted onto the chassis with flexible mountings – so the chassis can move and flex independently and no road transmission forces make their way into the body.”
Drawers and slides
Jeremy Binnington from GSF, a supplier of precision and high performance telescopic slides based near Wrexham in North Wales in the UK, has been supplying drawers, slides and tilts to TVAC for years. Binnignton explains that GSF recently launched an update of its old slide and tilt system – previously manufactured from metal components – in injection-moulded plastic components and aluminium extrusions. “This means they have a far more durable life cycle, because they are lighter and have a lower physical weight. The lighter the equipment is, the more you can add to the payload of the vehicle. Moulded plastic components are also less expensive, allowing for 40 or 50 per cent cost savings depending upon the actual requirements of the customer.”
Binnington explains that vehicle construction several years ago was quite different from the way they are built today. “The traditional method of build was an aluminium body on top of a steel chassis and the body was required to flex with the movements of the chassis. Rigid aluminium bodies don’t respond well to twisting and bending, which is what occurs when the appliance has a heavy payload.”
Slides are attached directly onto the aluminium bodywork, so the equipment trays in the vehicle have to give slightly to allow the body to naturally twist and move with the chassis.
According to Binnington the modern bodybuilding concept is to use plastic, either as a composite body such as Plastisol’s or a single sheet material – eg a polybuild material. “These plastic bodies have the flexibility that is required for the performance of the vehicle,” he continues. Binnington makes clear that GSF can work with any type of superstructure.
Ziegler for instance uses an aluminium super structure system and that concept has been used by English bodybuilder Assetco in a recent contract for airport rescue vehicles with GSF slides for Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue. “We can produce slides for any type of body. Undeniably, there are slightly different interface requirements depending on the type of body that is being built. Most body structure systems use internal uprights inside each locker – two at the back and two at the front. And from these uprights come the mountings for the slides and the tray systems,” explains Binnington.
The mountings are based on the fairly universally accepted dimension of 40 mm, and the GSF system allows the mountings to fix directly onto the internal uprights, thereby keeping adjustability of drawers/equipment in a vertical position within each locker.
This system is not used worldwide, however. “In the USA the body structures are very different,” says Binnington. Plastisol is making inroads in the US market where it is introducing the 40 mm dimension based on the standard uprights in their body structure.
The big difference between the two continents’ fire and rescue services is that the US is more reliant on volunteers than its European counterparts.
“Until recently most US small town fire chiefs specified vehicles in pretty much the same manner as they would buy a car. However it is becoming too expensive for them to buy one-off appliances because their finances are mostly raised by local charities. A standardisation of offerings would bring the cost of the vehicles down.”
It is generally accepted that a 15-year operational life for a vehicle in its first role is acceptable, continues Binnington.
“When a vehicle reaches its first end of life, it will either be sold on or retrofitted. In the UK most fire vehicles get sold off to less well-serviced countries at peppercorn prices, which is understandable and a good use of those kinds of resources.
“The market for second-hand vehicles is undergoing a change. For example we would warranty our slides and tilt systems for anywhere up to 20 years meaning that in fact you have extended the vehicle lifetime by five years, unless for operational reasons the lay-out has to be changed. In my opinion vehicles that are built with plastic bodies and internal plastic systems will naturally have a longer lifetime.”
The issue now is not the life of the body, but the life of the engine transmission and the chassis’ environmental credentials. Emissions laws become the guiding factor on how long the vehicle will be roadworthy.
“The cost of ownership on the appliances that the FRSs have stationed is increasing all the time and if you can provide a vehicle that has a far better fuel consumption, life expectancy and warranty period, this all contributes to a cost reduction of having the vehicle on station. Other important issues are ‘recyclability’ and ‘end of life disposal’ costs, which are always passed on to the end buyers,” explains Binnington.
Vehicle bodies used to be produced from a mixture of different metals; aluminium; steel; stainless steel etc. The cost of recycling those bodies is higher than the cost of recycling a plastic or composite body and Binnington argues that if you make any component out of plastic, and the weight and the mass of that component is greater than 30 grams, it has to be identified as a recyclable plastic and a particular grade of plastic.
The components in GSF’s slide and tilt systems are all plastic recyclables. The company’s old system used three or four different types of steel. Only an expert would be able to identify the different types of steel by sight, says Binnington. With plastics however the identification is done at manufacturing stage, rather then at end of life, making the recycling of components far easier. “Complying with the European regulations relating to recyclable plastics is simple when using GRP and moulded plastic. It means that you are able to reprocess a vehicle when you get to the end of its life far more easily and therefore the whole of life costs, maintenance cost and the running and disposal costs go down considerably. This is what people are interested in,” concludes Binnington.
Preference for aluminium
Uwe Kilian, sales & marketing manager (industrial vehicles) for Iveco Magirus, a vehicle manufacturer based in Ulm in Southern Germany, prefers aluminium over GRP. When Iveco carried out research before introducing AluFire 1 in 1986 – an aluminium superstructure – it extensively reviewed all materials available on the market and found that aluminium had the most benefits for body construction. “We checked all materials available on the market; steel; combinations between steel and aluminium; GRP etc. The problem with GRP or moulded plastic is that they aren’t so easy to replace when damaged – as is often said – because the system is very fixed. Only in the lockers are there some possibilities to change the internal structure. Another large disadvantage is that GRP deteriorates when exposed to sunlight,” says Kilian.
AluFire 3 is an anodised aluminium superstructure in which the plates are glued and screwed together. When damaged it is extremely easy to replace as well as being completely corrosion-proof.
Kilian explains that the average lifetime of an Iveco Magirus vehicle is more than 20 years and that only the watertanks in its vehicles are made from GRP. “We have applied a protective layer around the tanks to protect them from damaging influences caused by the sun.”
In Germany the fire and rescue service is set up in such a way that any city over 100,000 inhabitants has a professional fire department, and any town with a population under that number uses volunteer firefighters, therefore volunteers make up the largest part of the German fire and rescue service. Kilian explains that volunteers use their vehicles for 20 to 25 years and therefore require the highest quality.
Kilian is aware of the criticism that aluminium expands and contracts both over time and with vehicle movements. To successfully combat this problem Iveco developed special connections called elastic mountings between the main frame of the superstructure and the main frame of the chassis.
The second hand fire appliance market in Germany is not very large. “We mostly get requests for total vehicle replacement. Usually only when the vehicle has been in a collision are we contracted to change the superstructure. After a lifetime of 20 or 25 years the German fire brigades tend to sell their vehicles to third world countries. Industrial fire brigades on the continent usually acquire brand new vehicles,” he explains.
Iveco often gets requests to retrofit appliances from many other parts of the world. If there are any problems with a vehicle, Iveco Magirus takes the appliances to the workshop and makes changes according to customer specification.
Interestingly enough, the type of vehicle for which Iveco carries out most retrofits are its turntable ladders. Many clients keep the chassis but the steel turntable ladder they own gets retrofitted as an aluminium superstructure. “It is also very common that after 20 years, we have to maintain the vehicle, the ladder set and the podium. We rebuild the metal ladder set which then goes to the workshop for a paintjob. The value of a turntable ladder is high and therefore it is more economically viable to get these appliances retrofitted,” he explains.
Kilian has noticed several differences between the UK and the continent. He believes that in the UK, FRSs require more mileage and working hours from their appliances than in Germany. German voluntary fire brigades don’t use their vehicles as often, and there are also fewer brigades in Britain. Kilian concludes, “German volunteer brigades only get subsidised for the acquisition of new vehicles. They do not get any financial support from their local authorities to buy used appliances. It is for this reason that the second hand fire appliance market in Germany is relatively small. The situation is more or less the same in France. However the market is growing, as some of the smaller towns don’t get subsidised at all, and they do not have any choice but to buy second hand.”
