#Industry News
FRUTIGER - a whale, a promise!
Wheel Washing Systems, Dust Control and Demucking
A whale, a promise!
For more than 30 years now, reducing the negative impact of emissions on humans, the environment and machines has been one of the key areas of expertise of FRUTIGER Company AG. Today, more than 2,500 international clients use these leading global products which bear the unmistakeable whale logo. In addition to small and medium-sized businesses, this also includes numerous global groups as well as the authorities, the military and NATO.
It makes no difference if it’s for landfill, material handling facilities, recycling sites, building sites or mining operations: the product range of the MobyDick brand offers a wide variety of modern and practical solutions – everything from a single source. The success story began in 1986 with the installation of the first wheel washing system on the premises of a Swiss customer. In the following years, FRUTIGER concentrated initially on the German-language market and within a very short period of time as many as 50 systems were in use in Switzerland and southern Germany. However, the simple ‘wheel washing system’ was hardly a brand name suitable for international marketing. It was the current CEO Urs Frutiger who came up with the special brand name ‘MobyDick’ while playing with his daughter with one of her toys, a water-squirting rubber whale.
In December 1995, FRUTIGER had its international breakthrough with the first drive-through system in the world. This global innovation, which for the first time allowed the tyres, the undercarriage and the chassis to be washed in less than a minute, led to growing demand over the next few years. This required a worldwide expansion of the group of companies. The continuous further development of the MobyDick system permitted ever-improving cleaning results to be achieved, and as a result of the integrated water recycling (compared with the drive-through basins which were previously customary), it was possible to clean vehicles with clear water. This meant that small tailbacks of cars were not an infrequent sight in front of certain facilities as many drivers wanted to make use of the good washing performance to clean their vehicles just before the weekend. When a MobyDick system had been used, the central focus shifted from the clean street to the clean vehicle. The advantages were clear, as in addition to saving large quantities of fresh water, automatic washing also allowed a lot of the effort associated with hose-washing to be saved. We can do even better than this, thought the FRUTIGER engineers – after the turn of the millennium, they developed the first MobyDick demucking system which was able to clean most dirt off wheeled and tracked vehicles up to the size of a CAT D11 within a few minutes. It didn’t take long for this innovative product to find success. MobyDick Demucking systems are now used in countless mines, military training areas and by large construction machinery leasing companies.
In practice, the use of MobyDick wheel and demucking systems has also repeatedly shown that dust formation resulting from clean and wet tyres is significantly reduced. For this reason, wheel washing systems were also used in the past for the purpose of reducing dust on roads. Of course, this did not always alleviate all the problems associated with dust emissions and the demand for other practical dust-binding solutions continuously increased. For this reason, FRUTIGER introduced the MobyDick Dust Control Cannon just under five years ago. These are not simply adapted snow cannons, rather they are systems which have been developed from scratch and exclusively for the purpose of dust binding. For example, MobyDick Dust Control Cannons therefore have a robust composite fibre cone which is aerodynamically formed in order to achieve extensive casting distances with low energy output. The material also has a positive effect on noise generation, as composite fibre does not vibrate; in fact, it absorbs sound, unlike sheet steel. Operation and maintenance are also intuitive and anyone can learn quickly. In winter, the systems can be completely emptied after use with two handles. This eliminates time-consuming heating until the next use. Thanks to high-quality medium- and high-pressure pumps between 20–100 bar, which produce a water mist with a large quantity of the smallest droplets of water using special nozzles (50μ to 150μ outside and 20μ to 80μ inside), it is possible to use the water which is utilised very efficiently for dust-binding purposes. Smaller water droplets work better because, in addition to their higher numbers and more homogeneous size, they also stay in the air for longer due to the lower airspeed and rate of falling.
