Hydraulics for extreme applications

Procuring a fire-fighting vehicle, an off-road tipper, a recovery truck for heavy vehicles, a troop carrier or a freight transporter is not a straightforward process: specialists like EMPL Fahrzeugwerk GmbH that use customised bodies to transform the “bare” truck chassis into vehicles with quite special characteristics are much in demand.

The heat shimmers over the asphalt. 50 degrees in the shade. A special vehicle from EMPL powers its way through the desert landscape. On board: personnel and equipment for welfare provision. Every component must work absolutely reliably – under extreme conditions and hundreds of kilometres from the nearest garage. In another part of the world, a transporter from the Austrian Federal Armed Forces appears to effortlessly ascend an unsurfaced incline in the Alps. At the same time, fire service vehicles set out to attend a major fire; while a breakdown truck recovers a heavy goods vehicle lying overturned on an embankment. What connects all these vehicles: the customised vehicle bodies were developed and built by EMPL and their hydraulics came from HANSA‑FLEX.

EMPL Fahrzeugwerk GmbH has manufacturing sites in Austria (Kaltenbach) and Germany (Zahna-Elster) and can look back on a long tradition. Since 1948, the family company has been producing customised truck bodies and trailers for the most challenging applications. Today, EMPL employs a workforce of around 650 and focuses on special vehicle construction for three fields of application: fire fighting, industry and defence & public authorities. “We do not mass-produce standard, off-the-peg vehicles, instead we develop individualised solutions for our customers all over the world. Whether one-off, small-batch or large-volume orders: EMPL delivers innovative concepts for greater efficiency and excellent reliability,” explains CEO Joe Empl.

As diverse as the solutions from EMPL are, they all have one thing in common, in addition to their uncompromising quality and individually customised design: without hydraulics, nothing works. Whether it be tail lifts, tilting mechanisms, crane bodies or support systems – they all use hydraulics. There could be several dozen hose lines, pipelines and screw fittings on a single special vehicle and they must be made to work precisely in harmony with one another. The challenge: every vehicle is different. The requirements vary, depending on the field of application and the customer. A fire engine for an Austrian municipality has a different specification to a recovery truck used in desert regions. 

A major order from the Austrian Federal Armed Forces for more than 800 swap bodies and over 850 trucks equipped to accept these bodies will keep EMPL working at a high level of capacity over the next few years. The company’s cooperation with the Armed Forces is not limited only to transport logistics: a follow-up order of over €30 million involves civil construction site vehicles, including, in particular, a 3-way rock tipper with a removable rear crane. Further fire service and non-military projects are running at the same time. “As a family company, our investments underline a clear commitment to our manufacturing sites and create jobs in the region,” says Joe Empl. The HANSA‑FLEX team that serves EMPL in Austria and Germany supports this development through their engagement and customer-focus: “It is always good to see how we and a customer grow together. As each special EMPL vehicle is completed, we feel proud to see and know we were able to play our part.”