The one thousandth L32A-XS has left the Rosenbauer production line and was delivered to the Karlsruhe Fire Department. The formal handover at the city's main fire station was attended by Florian Geldner, the Commander of the Karlsruhe Fire Department.
The anniversary aerial ladder is the third L32A-XS in the fire department’s fleet. Thanks to this new addition, two firefighting units at the professional fire department and one at the volunteer fire service are now fitted with these high-rise aerial appliances.
Rosenbauer delivers 1,000th XS Aerial Ladder
Aerial rescue vehicles are technically incredibly advanced and can save lives when used by fire departments"
Fire Department Commander - Florian Geldner, said “Aerial rescue vehicles are technically incredibly advanced and can save lives when used by fire departments. We are delighted to be here today to receive this reliable, high-quality aerial ladder made in Karlsruhe.”
“The Karlsruhe fire department has extremely high standards for its aerial rescue vehicles, and it makes us enormously proud to know how much our XS design has impressed them. It is a great honor for us to hand this anniversary vehicle over to the fire department in the city in which it was designed and built,” added Michael Kristeller, Managing Director of Rosenbauer Karlsruhe.
Center of excellence for aerial rescue vehicles
The Karlsruhe site is the global firefighting equipment manufacturer’s center of excellence for aerial rescue vehicles.
Aerial ladders have been produced there for more than a hundred years (the first automatic aerial ladder was made in 1912), and it has witnessed numerous technical milestones over the years, such as the development of the L32A-XS, which was launched ten years ago.
Rosenbauer aerial ladders with XS technology
The centerpiece of the L32A-XS (the ‘XS’ stands for ‘extra small’) is its tilting cage boom, measuring 4.35 or 4.65 m in length, and an inward-offset pivot point, which means that it is angled "earlier" than a conventional articulated aerial ladder.
With an angled cage boom, the minimum distance to the ladder's destination can be reduced, which makes it easier for the fire department to reach lower floors and the rescue cage can glide smoothly up the facade.
The XS design
The XS design really comes into its own in confined spaces in particular
The XS design really comes into its own in confined spaces in particular, partly because it does not need as wide a road as other models to rotate its ladder and cage and make use of its full range of movement and partly because in the case of buildings with large frontages, it can reach more sites from a single setup position without the vehicle having to be moved.
The cage on an XS can also be set down within a very short distance (2.5 m in front of the cab). The design is also useful for deployments below ground level because the angled cage boom allows such sites to be reached without having to tilt the entire vehicle.
High-performance hydraulics
The high-performance hydraulics with five CAN buses ensures reliable automatic operation and also enables the use of state-of-the-art assistance systems thanks to parameterizable inputs and outputs.
There is also the XS model with a compact turntable (L27A-XS), which does not protrude beyond the boundaries of the vehicle even when rotated through 360°; the low-height XS (L32A-XS Flat); and the XS with a full complement of extinguishing equipment (pump, tank, telescopic waterway system, turret, etc.) as a first attack unit for in-house firefighting operations.
Multifunctional workstation thanks to rescue cage
One milestone was the development of the HR-500 MF rescue cage, with an increased payload of 500 kg
One milestone was the development of the HR-500 MF rescue cage, with an increased payload of 500 kg (five persons) and a removable multi-functional column at the front of the cage.
This allows disabled access to the cage, making it easier to rescue people in wheelchairs or very heavy patients on stretchers, both of which can be fastened safely and securely to the floor of the cage or to the railings before the cage is moved. The rescue cage is optimized for firefighting operations, too.
Water piping is integrated in the cage structure
The water piping is integrated in the cage structure in a way that saves space, and it is possible to mount electronically and manually controlled turrets. A dedicated system for rescue operations at significant heights has also been developed for the XS.
It has a modular structure and comprises ropes, pulleys, winches, sheaves, carabiners and adapters as well as anchor points on the turntable, on the knuckle joint, at the tip of the ladder and on the underside of the rescue cage.
Add-on parts are also available for all manner of potential operational scenarios, including an extending platform, a rubble container, a diving ladder, various headlight and camera systems and equipment for supplying electricity and oxygen to the cage team.
Rosenbauer XS aerial ladders
Rosenbauer XS aerial ladders are equipped with five-section ladder-and-cage sets
Rosenbauer XS aerial ladders are equipped with five-section ladder-and-cage sets and can reach working heights of 27, 32 and 42 meters, depending on the model.
Production has been robot-assisted since 2018, with parts cut using high-precision lasers welded by fully automated robots on two 13 m lines for the upper and lower ladder sections and a 6 m line for the cage boom.
The vehicle body can be mounted on all standard chassis in particular from MAN (TGM), Mercedes-Benz (Atego, Econic, Actros, Zetros), Scania and Volvo. Chassis from Rosenbauer America (Commander, Avenger) are available for the US and for other international markets that follow NFPA standards. Rosenbauer presented its L32A-XS electric on a Volvo FE Electric chassis as a zero-emissions alternative at Interschutz 2022.
L32A-XS - top product in Rosenbauer’s aerial ladder range
The L32A-XS is the top product in Rosenbauer’s aerial ladder range and the most popular type of aerial ladder, accounting for more than 70% of sales.
It combines all the company's expertise in rescues at height in one of the most high-tech products and is used all over the world, even in the United States of America (USA).
L32A-XS 3.2 for the Karlsruhe fire department
- Chassis: Mercedes-Benz 1630 F Atego
- Ladder and cage: L32A-XS, fully automatic, five-section, with tilting cage boom (4.34 m long)
- Working height / basket-to-floor height: 32/30 m
- Control system: five CAN buses
- Podium: HLM aluminum safety podium with six equipment compartments with roller shutters
- Jacking: horizontal and vertical jacking, any position from 2.50 to 4.80 m
- Rescue cage: HR-500 MF (500 kg payload)
- Measurements: L x W x H: 10 x 2.5 x 3.25 m
- Gross vehicle weight: 16 t
Additional equipment
- SAFESTEP, podium access lighting
- SAFESKY, floodlights on ladder support
- Six shackles (fourth ladder section, cage boom joint/tip)
- Two anchor points on turntable
- ARF (automatic return function)
- TMS (target memory system)
- VRS (vertical rescue system)
- High-powered LEDs on cage floor and left/right of cage
- Cameras on cage boom, at front of cage, underneath rescue cage