Refrigerated trucks
Refrigerated trucks are trucks with a refrigerated body and are used for temperature-controlled transport.
In freight transport and especially in long-distance freight transport , only articulated lorries and trucks are predominantly used. In local traffic and in narrow cities, on the other hand, often motor vehicles (trucks without trailers) or small vans .
Vehicle body
Due to the complex, insulated structure and the cooling unit (almost always with heating and freezing function), these are technically considerably more complex than other closed structures. Especially with maintenance costs, small shunting damage that often occurs in everyday transport can result in large repair costs.
Due to the fixed structure, however, many disadvantages arise during transport, which can only be partially solved with technically sophisticated and thus even more expensive and payload- reducing structures, or their disadvantages can be minimized or shifted.
Flexibility is one of the most important criteria in the transport industry. For this reason, the vehicles are often individually manufactured as required by the transport company and any regular customers and, in contrast to the automotive sector, there is no standardized mass production in low-wage countries, especially since the acquisition costs also play a low role over the term.
An insulated box body is much heavier than a comparable closed tarpaulin structure due to the usually double-walled GRP paneling with an insulating core made of polyurethane foam and wooden or aluminum struts in between. This reduces the usual maximum payload from 25 to 24 tons.
To ensure that the inner width of 2.40 m, which is sensible for standardized transport equipment such as Euro pallets and lattice boxes , is retained, temperature-controlled structures may have a total width of 2.60 m and thus exceed the maximum permitted total width of 2.55 m without a special permit . Since the maximum vehicle length must not increase, however, conventional refrigerated trailers can only transport 33 instead of 34 euro pallets.
In the delivery traffic of general cargo of the small vans hardly any complex insulated vehicles are used.
The temperature control
The cooling unit is always operated on long-distance trains and often also from medium-heavy local traffic during the journey via a fuel tank mounted below the semi-trailer or, in the case of an articulated train, through the diesel tank of the vehicle.
In order for life to reduce the noise and exhaust emissions, many cooling units also feature a three-phase connection , of a relatively quiet, electric cooling permits. Additional encapsulation and insulation in the cooling unit minimize the development of noise in both types of use; in diesel operation , the exhaust gases are discharged via a silencer - exhaust gas cleaning system.
A few, mainly old vehicles from medium-duty local traffic are pre-cooled by purely electricity-driven cooling units and cannot be operated independently (independent of the power grid). This type of cooling is therefore only suitable for short transport routes and times.
Due to the small transport volume , the small vans are cooled with small aggregates operated via the vehicle power grid or diesel .
Other technical features in temperature-controlled transport are e.g. B. Temperature recorder. The temperatures are recorded, saved and the progress can be shown on a display or printed out at any time. Digital temperature monitoring via satellite ( GPS ) and corresponding fleet control solutions are also possible. This is used for quality assurance so that impermissible temperature fluctuations can also be determined later and sustainably avoided. According to EU regulations 178/2002 / EC and 37/2005 / EC, there is an obligation to provide evidence of the traceability of the quality assurance of food.
Equipment
Depending on the requirements, the superstructures can also be built with double-decker equipment or completely with side doors. This can lead to a reduction in the payload weight.
Superstructures for the transport of fresh meat are equipped with sliding tracks and meat hooks below the roof. These meat hooks can be locked at short intervals so that, for example, halves of pork or beef cannot slide back and forth over the entire length of the body while driving.
Manufacturer
Over 90% of all refrigerated trailers sold in Germany come from the two German vehicle manufacturers Schmitz Cargobull or Krone . The remaining 10% are mainly due to the merged manufacturers Kögel and Chereau (France) (as of 2004).
Web links and sources
- Representation + description of the refrigerated body (Schmitz Cargobull)
- Film + description of refrigerated vehicles (Krone)
- Pictures of refrigerated vehicles
proof
- ↑ Regulation (EC) No. 178/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council of January 28, 2002 laying down the general principles and requirements of food law, establishing the European Food Safety Authority and laying down procedures for food safety
- ↑ Regulation (EC) No. 37/2005 of the Commission of January 12, 2005 on the monitoring of the temperatures of deep-frozen foods in means of transport and in warehousing and storage facilities