Recycling drive opens up new solutions

Major RCV manufacturer, Faun, includes new solutions to waste collection and recycling challenges in its wide range of equipment. Editor Alexander Catto reports from Faun’s new HQ factory in Osterholz-Scharmbeck, Germany.


Building on a “major rise” in unit sales in the first half of this year, Faun Municipal Vehicles Ltd, based in Anglesey – the British arm of the European-wide Faun Umwelttechnik group – is set to continue its advance.

Faun reports that the introduction of statutory performance standards for household waste recycling and composting has resulted in a significant level of interest in the Faun Rotopress model.

This long-established rotating drum body, of which over 35,000 have been sold over many years, has found a new niche market in composting.

Recycling market

Recycling is one of the driving factors in the market which is boosting business across the board from manufacturers to vehicle hirers, financial institutions and waste management service providers.

Manufacturers, the hire market specialists and waste collection services are looking for new solutions to assist in the drive towards greater efficiency and improved rates of recycling in particular.

Sideloaders, for example, well proven in the European mainland, in countries such as Germany, Spain and Italy, could now find a more receptive response from UK refuse collection and transport managers. This equipment figures prominently amongst the wide range of waste collection equipment produced by Faun Municipal Vehicles’ parent group Faun Umwelltechnik (Environment Technology) group, part of the German Kirchoff Group.

Displaying its capabilities at its recently commissioned state-of-the-art waste vehicle production plant at its headquarters in Osterholz-Scharmbeck near Bremen, Faun proudly lays claim to European market leadership in the manufacture of refuse collection equipment, producing over 1,650 units a year.

Pan-European operations

In order to further consolidate its market leadership in Europe, Faun lays increasing emphasis on its international activities.

In addition to its factories in Germany, and at Llangefai in Wales, the RCV body manufacturer has production sites in France, Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland.

Faun’s extensive range in the waste collection sector includes:

  • Toppress X – front-side loader with a new container exchange technology.
  • Frontpress – continually developed powerpack front loader
  • Sidepress – cab-controlled sideloader
  • MSTS Packer 1 – one-person operated front side loader with demountable container systems

  • Twinpress – capability of loading two types of container in a one-person operation

  • Easypress – combines standard chassis with the latest loading equipment

  • Offers body-optimised lifters for every type of district

  • Memotour – navigation system for RCVs

    COCOS – Container Control System – container identification and weighing system

  • Viajet & Terrajet – sweepers

Product development

Faun offers three variants of the established Sidepress range, based on a modular system.

The Sidepress, with Sidelift C1100, lifts medium containers from 80 to 1,100 litres, controlled by a joystick in the cab. The Sidelift C240, also controlled by joystick, lifts containers from 60 to 240 litres in eight seconds. In addition, with the automatic changer, the changeover from comb to diamond lifter can be made direct from the cab in seconds, without manual intervention. The Sidepress X offers an innovation, in combination with the newly developed Hawkchange hook system. To change containers the hydraulically operated arm links with the locking point, producing a fast and safe changeover. In addition, the Sidepress X is fitted with the new Pressbox, a rigid interchangeable container, which offers low weight and high payload. Faun has also developed a newly designed remote diagnostics module which allows service engineers to access, by radio link, operating data from the body control system and immediately detect any irregularities.

The rapid reaction this allows can reduce the critical downtime factor in collection rounds. LAWE witnessed dramatic evidence of the Faun sideloader’s capabilities, following a vehicle on its collection round operated by local waste services contractor, Nehlsen.

Although running in a semi-rural area, including a quiet estate with accommodating broad verges and obviously co-operative residents, the high rate of lifting of wheeled bins by the cab-operated system, could prove a pointer to improved efficiency in collection under similar conditions if applied in the UK.

Faun Municipal Vehicles’ General Manager, John Prescott, certainly sees considerable potential for additional Faun RCV product applications in this country and reports the use of sideloader vehicles is being actively considered by interested customers in the local authority sector.

Another well established system for container collection and transportation – the MSTS Parker 1 – used widely in Germany, could interest UK operators. The Multi Service Transport System Packer 1, mounted on the low entry version of the DC Atego chassis, functions as a driver-operated front-side loader with an interchangeable container system.

The key element is that collection can be separated from the transport function as the containers can be stacked vertically to save on storage space and a new empty container taken on board using an automated system, for further collection rounds.

Faun says that this vehicle is particularly suitable for waste collection in suburban or inner city areas with traffic density, or in rural areas where there are often long distances to travel between collection round and waste plant. Some 450 vehicles have been supplied over 15 years’ operation, evidence of the suitability of the system.

New from Faun is the Toppress X, shown for the first time at IFAT 2002. Mounted on a low entry chassis, with a compatible exchange container to DIN 30722, the system combines a front-side loader with a modern container exchange system. Faun Toppress X has combined components of the MSTS system with the newly developed Hawkchange. The new options available from Faun could help UK waste managers meet the increasingly tough targets they face, both in meeting the demands of the “Best Value” regime and in boosting recycling performance.


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