The Rotopress is a

waste collection vehicle A garbage truck is a truck specially designed to collect municipal solid waste and transport it to a solid waste treatment facility, such as a landfill, recycling center or transfer station. In Australia they are commonly called rubbish truc ...

manufactured by the German company

Faun Umwelttechnik The faun (, grc, φαῦνος, ''phaunos'', ) is a half-human and half-goat mythological creature appearing in Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Originally fauns of Roman mythology were spirits (genii) of rustic places, lesser ve ...

and formerly by

KUKA KUKA is a German manufacturer of industrial robots and systems for factory automation. It has been predominantly owned by the Chinese company Midea Group since 2016. The KUKA Robotics Corporation has 25 subsidiaries, mostly sales and servi ...

. It uses a rotating drum to compact waste, and has its origin in a series of designs built by KUKA since the 1920s. The name "Rotopress" was first used in 1977, and has been used on subsequent models by the company, and by other companies under licence.

Description

The Rotopress is a continuously compacting garbage truck. A massive rotating drum compacts and stores the garbage. The outer edge of the drum acts as the loading hopper, and paddles on the drum convey the waste around an auger of decreasing pitch until it is small enough to be forced through a small ring-shaped gap between the drum and the auger, where it then enters the main section of the drum, which has helically shaped internal paddles which move the now-crushed waste towards the front of the vehicle. When emptying the drum, the direction of rotation is reversed.

History

The German company Keller und Knappich, Augsburg (

), founded in 1898, built its first rotary waste collection vehicle in 1927. Production of the original model continued until 1949, and its replacement, the Type 210, was launched the following year. Subsequent models included the "Shark", introduced to the United States in the 1960s and so-named due to the serrated loading auger which was designed to tear up garbage sacks and other large soft items as they were dragged into the drum. The first model to carry the "Rotopress" name was the Type 215G, in 1977, and the name has been the company's subsequent rotary-drum designs including the 205. Both the Shark and the Rotopress have been produced under licence by other manufacturers, including the British company, Laird Anglesey Ltd, based in

Anglesey Anglesey (; cy, (Ynys) Môn ) is an island off the north-west coast of Wales. It forms a Local government in Wales, principal area known as the Isle of Anglesey, that includes Holy Island, Anglesey, Holy Island across the narrow Cymyran Strai ...

. In 1983 KUKA's municipal vehicles division was acquired by Faun GmbH and production was moved to

Osterholz Osterholz is a district (''Landkreis'') in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by (from the west and clockwise) the districts of Wesermarsch, Cuxhaven, Rotenburg and Verden, and by the city of Bremen. History Originally the prince-archbishops ...

. Manufacturing of waste collection vehicles became part of Faun's Environmental Technology sector, which was sold in 1987 to the Schmidt family (former owners of Faun) as a separate company with the name Faun Umwelttechnik. This was acquired by the Kirchhoff group in 1994. Laird Anglesey was acquired by Faun Eurotec, a subsidiary of Faun Umwelttechnik, in 1996. By 1999, over 33,500 Rotopress bodies had been built. One of the key

market niche A niche market is the subset of the market on which a specific product is focused. The market niche defines the product features aimed at satisfying specific market needs, as well as the price range, production quality and the demographics that ...

s which the Rotopress is aimed at is the collection of

Green waste Green waste, also known as "biological waste", is any organic waste that can be composted. It is most usually composed of refuse from gardens such as grass clippings or leaves, and domestic or industrial kitchen wastes. Green waste does not inclu ...

, as the continuous tumbling action of the rotary drum system mixes and homogonizes biodegradable material for

compost Compost is a mixture of ingredients used as plant fertilizer and to improve soil's physical, chemical and biological properties. It is commonly prepared by decomposing plant, food waste, recycling organic materials and manure. The resulting ...

ing. FAUN have licensed the design to Fujicar Ltd (a division of

Fuji Heavy Industries is a Japanese multinational corporation and conglomerate primarily involved in both terrestrial and aerospace transportation manufacturing. It is best known for its line of Subaru automobiles. Founded in 1953, the company was formerly named ...

) who manufacture a smaller scale version of the rotary drum compactor specifically for the Japanese market (where the bodies are typically mounted on small truck or light van chassis). These clone versions are notable for the drum turning in the opposite direction (anticlockwise instead of clockwise) compared to the full-size European versions.

Products

As of 2011, the Rotopress is produced a range of sizes from smallest to largest: 008, 514, 516, 518, 520 and 522, as well as the Rotopress Dualpower hybrid vehicle, and the Rotopress 541 which is produced as either a stationary intermediate waste store or a

semi-trailer A semi-trailer is a trailer without a front axle. In the United States, the term is also used to refer to the combination of a truck and a semi-trailer; a tractor-trailer. A large proportion of a semi-trailer's weight is supported by a trac ...

References

{{Reflist, refs= {{Cite web, url=http://www.classicrefusetrucks.com/albums/KU/KU01b.html, title=Classic Refuse Trucks: KUKA, first=Michel, last=Ferro, year=2006, accessdate=2011-09-04 {{Cite web, url=http://www.classicrefusetrucks.com/albums/KU/KU05b.html, title=Classic Refuse Trucks: KUKA: Type 215G "Groblagerung" and "Rotopress", first=Michel, last=Ferro, year=2006, accessdate=2011-09-04 {{Cite web, url=http://www.classicrefusetrucks.com/albums/KU/KU09b.html, title=Rotary Refuse Bodies (Continued), first=Eric, last=Voytko, year=2009, accessdate=2011-09-04 {{Cite web, url=http://www.faun.com/home/waste-collection-vehicles/rear-loaders/rotopress.html?L=1, title=Faun Umwelttechnik: Rotopress, publisher=Faun Umwelttechnik, accessdate=2011-09-04 {{Cite web, url=http://www.faun.com/uploads/media/Story-of-FAUN-in-detail.pdf, title=164 years FAUN: The story of FAUN in detail, publisher=Faun Umwelttechnik, accessdate=2011-09-04, url-status=dead, archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120328041124/http://www.faun.com/uploads/media/Story-of-FAUN-in-detail.pdf, archivedate=2012-03-28 {{Cite book, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vdEQ9041UpQC&pg=PA38, title=Municipal refuse collection vehicles, page=38, first=Barrie C., last=Woods, year=1999, isbn=978-0-9521070-4-0, publisher=Trans Pennine Publishing, accessdate=2011-09-04

External links

FAUN Umwelttechnik: ROTOPRESS
Waste collection vehicles