- Universally usable thanks to a multi-functional basic concept
- Ergonomically optimised due to novel vehicle architecture
- Low-emission and low-noise with an alternative drive concept
As part of its 150th anniversary, the Austrian fire service supplier Rosenbauer has presented the CFT concept study, once again underpinning its claim to leadership in this field of technology. The CFT gives a foretaste of what is to come in terms of tomorrow’s fire truck. In close cooperation with Spirit Design, the development engineers focussed on the vehicle’s design to systematically and uncompromisingly take on the challenges fire services will face in the future.
Design-driven innovation
The result is an extremely compact and manoeuvrable emergency vehicle with a highly multi-functional and innovative design.
The optimised spatial concept offers space for any equipment fire services need for their various operations. CFT is a fire engine, a rescue vehicle, a universal vehicle and an ambulance in one, which, with a few simple adjustments, can be converted so as to allow first-aid treatment to injured persons and to transport them in a lying position.
Initial answers
Social and technological changes – demographic change, digitalisation, etc. – will also have an impact on the organisation and technology of fire services. The Concept Fire Truck offers some specific answers to the questions of tomorrow.
What will fire service technology need to look like when fewer fire fighters are available during the day, when more women and elderly people are active in the emergency services and when professional fire fighters are increasingly supported by volunteers?
Robust, failure-resistant and reliable – these requirements will remain unchanged. With regard to handling, however, in future it will be necessary to respond to all user groups individually in an optimised way.
How should a fire truck be designed to allow it to be used even more universally?
Statistics on fire service operations show a clear tendency. They are increasingly dealing with technical and rescue emergencies – in particular in urban areas – with the number of fire-fighting missions remaining relatively stable. Vehicles with multi-functional equipment already provide the answer to various challenges; in the future, however, multi-functionality will have to apply not only to the equipment on board, but also to the vehicle as a whole.
How can the ecological demand for fewer pollutants and noise emissions also be considered in fire trucks?
This inevitably leads to reflections about alternative, low-emission drive concepts.
New philosophy
Innumerable considerations of that kind prompted Rosenbauer’s development engineers to break fresh ground in the concept study for the fire truck of tomorrow. Consequently, the chassis, driver’s cabin and superstructure form a unified whole in the CFT. These are the key advantages as regards vehicle dynamics and driving stability, a lower vehicle height and, at the same time, an improved use of space and greater crew protection. The space for the crew coalesces with the driver’s cabin to form a barrier-free whole and can be adapted to any kind of operation.
The CFT project also stands for a completely new approach in the development of fire service technology. It is a concept study that responds to the functions which fire services require, while being more ergonomic, universal and environmentally friendly than anything previously available in this sector.
This vehicle, which is modelled in the typical Rosenbauer design language, reflects a forward-looking innovative approach and provides an idea of what vehicle generations to come might look like.
Image rights: Rosenbauer
