Schmitz fridge in production
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AFTER REVEALING plans at last year's Hannover show to launch its own trailer fridge unit to challenge the stranglehold of Carrier Transicold and Thermoking, trailer maker Schmitz Cargobull confirmed that series production has just begun.
The announcement was made at last week's Solutrans truck show in Lyon.
Around 300 T.KM One fridges are undergoing in-service trials on Schmitz trailers with operators in Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark. They are now being built on a small production line at a rate of two or three a day, with production poised to increase to meet demand.
The T.KM One is an all-electric design, with its four-cylinder, 2.2-litre Perkins diesel engine driving a generator that supplies power to the electrically driven compressor and fans. Engine speed control is continuously variable rather than stepped, and two of the compressor's four cylinders can be deactivated to save fuel when cooling demand is low.
Temperature control is claimed to be particularly precise. Although not publishing the fridge's exact cooling capacity, Schmitz said T.KM One is for single-temperature trailers, hinting it is around 8,400W-8,800W when measured by ATP rules at -20C inside and 30C outside. A version for multi-temperature trailers is in development.