CAPITAL EQUIPMENT NEWS
MAY 2014
30
TRAILERS
Individuality will be less expensive in
future
With this strategic decision, the product
portfolio experiences an innovative,
nearly revolutionary expansion. Until
now, Faymonville has, to a large extent,
manufactured vehicles according to
the principle ‘design to order’, which
means: tailor-made solutions, precisely
matching the customer’s wishes. This has
resulted in its current product range, with
fourteen basic models that have become
increasingly complex - after all, there are
more than three thousand different vehicle
chassis with lengths of between 8 and 60
metres and a dead weight of between 6 and
44 tonnes.
“Up until now, this has been without
doubt the right philosophy, because we
can quickly and flexibly produce what the
customer requires in the short term”, says
CEO Alain Faymonville looking back. “This
individuality secures a strong and stable
market presence for our company.” In the
meantime, the complexity of the range
is reaching its limits. However, to face
this fact, Faymonville is not renouncing
customer-specific solutions, but instead is
launching a complementary vehicle, “with
which we are providing customers with
the inexpensive option of being able to
individually configure their own vehicles”.
From this perspective, the new CombiMAX
can be considered a supplement to the
existing MegaMAX, MultiMAX, GigaMAX,
VarioMAX and ModulMAX product groups.
Aiming at road vehicle payloads of
between 60 and 250 tonnes
The principle of modularity is already being
applied to heavy load vehicles, but so far
it has not been rigorously implemented
with pure road vehicles. Modularity and
thus versatility are being transferred to
Faymonville’s core product, i.e. to the
trailers and stepframe semi-trailers for
medium to heavy payloads of between
60 and 250 tonnes. An important reason
for the development of the CombiMAX is
the EU-wide harmonisation of the vehicle
registration regulations with the future
limitation of the axle load to a maximum
of 12 to 14 tonnes. “The worldwide
tendency towards the restriction of the
axle loads inevitably forces you into new
considerations and developments,” says
Commercial Director, Arnold Luxen.
In order to realise the CombiMAX, a select
team developed components and processes
that are considered to be absolutely new on
the market. These include, for instance, a
lightweight construction for modular vehicle
chassis, decentralised ‘add-on’ steering
systems, universal goosenecks, lighter
pendle axles and independent suspensions,
MODULAR COMBINABILITY
offers unlimited possibilities
Using a construction kit system with a modular platform structure,
Faymonville is setting future-oriented trends in the market with
its Combi
MAX
series. The strategy in the development of the new
vehicle type is based on the variety of combinations of standardised
components. The principle is being implemented for pure road vehicles.
In this way, from now on, the company can offer its customers
individually configured solutions.
