It does not help that industrial incidents tend to be fairly complex – such as hazmat complications – and excellent training and equipment is required to meet the incident response team’s challenges.

Rosenbauer aims to simplify the operation of these high-spec vehicles and pump installations through its Logic Control System, explains Tonhaueser.  “We have initiated a taskforce within the company that is constantly working on improvements to our vehicles’ operating philosophy. This team simplifies the controls of highly complicated and sophisticated extinguishing systems by breaking them down to a level where trained firefighters can operate the vehicle in the easiest manner.”

Rosenbauer regards itself as more of a system manufacturer than a vehicle manufacturer  because it makes water and foam pumps, foam proportioning systems, monitors and discharge nozzles, hose reels, and under-truck nozzles in-house.
Currently, the company is redeveloping the Can-Bus system for industrial vehicles. And as all components are manufactured in-house the whole system can be integrated to simplify vehicle operation.

This is important, explains Tonhaueser, because vehicle requirements for each industrial facility are completely different, as are the health and safety challenges for each crew.
A chemical company such as BASF (which operates large steamcracker installations), has completely different requirements to a petrochemical plant.

In a steamcracker, Naphta’s long molecular chains are cracked with steam into short-chained olefins. The resulting products are the raw materials for the production of plastics, paints, solvents and herbicides.

Although a vehicle in one of the larger industrial facilities might drive out several times a day to respond to alarms, it doesn’t often get used to its full capability. To ensure a vehicle is fully functional when needed, Rosenbauer provides a service where a team monitors a remote diagnostic system and carries out preventative maintenance programs. A dedicated service engineer also visits each vehicle once a year, checking all its functions. “In order to operate remote diagnostics, the CAN-bus settings need to be preconditioned. This means that the Telematic system can detect any defects via the Electronic Control Units (ECU) in the vehicle.”

Tonhaeuser explains that from 2001 the European Standard EN1846-2 has required all vehicles with BA sets facing the driving direction to include a hold-back system connected to the hand brake of the vehicle. Consequently, if a firefighter puts on the BA bracket he cannot actually release it until the vehicle’s parking brake has been applied, usually when the team has arrived safely at the scene. The thinking behind this rule is that when a firefighter puts on a BA set, he is adding around 20 kg to his own weight, and a harsh brake can result in serious injury.

So how does a vehicle manufacturer comply with regulations without compromising vehicle performance? Tonhaeuser says there is usually some room for manoeuvre in the framework. “For instance, pumps have to work below certain noise levels in operation. The challenge for us is to manufacture a pump that can produce 10,000 lpm whilst producing a minimum amount of noise. This is a big engineering challenge as the larger the pump the larger the pump speed will be. Therefore we have created special impellers in a certain relation to the diffusers which enables us to keep the speed of the pump revolutions fairly low, while on the other hand creating a huge output.”

Tonhaeuser believes that designing an industrial fire vehicles poses a large challenge in itself, as industrial firefighters require a whole range of different extinguishing media in a large volume, as well as carry a high reach extendable turret (HRET) – while meeting road regulations. It sometimes feels as if responders are asking Rosenbauer to design three vehicles in one, except every requested feature is essential.

The HRET, for instance, is essential especially in the petrochemical industry where storage tanks are involved. “The elevated boom reaches to the top of storage tanks and enables the responders to fill these up with foam. We have attached a thermal imaging as well as a standard video camera to provide a clear overview of the scene.

The remote picture enables them to view the scene from a safe distance, as all the functions can be controlled remotely. Fire fighters can place the vehicle in the hazardous area, connect it to a water supply, remove themselves from the area, and  then operate the vehicle from a safe distance. This feature is very popular with petrochemical response teams that have to deal with hydrogen amongst other hazards.”

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