The Tyrolean family business Achleitner has specialized in the construction of vehicles and special vehicles over the past decades. Now the company is presenting Insight, a passive door opening system, at Enforce Tac in Nuremberg. How does the new product fit in with the company philosophy and how was it developed in the first place? An interview with Managing Director Alexander Achleitner.
Mr. Achleitner, your company has been known as a vehicle manufacturer for decades. Most recently, you have made a name for yourself primarily with vehicle armoring, right?
That is correct. We have been active in the field of armor technology for specially protected vehicles for more than 45 years. The sector has developed well recently, we have noticed an increasing demand for protected vehicles for years and have also grown strongly in this area with a wide variety of products.
This growth is currently evident in the Terrus Protect protected tractors developed jointly with Steyr Traktoren. However, the Survivor, an almost classic from Achleitner, will be on display at the stand.
Production of the first version of the vehicle actually began back in 2008, and we then launched a smaller version on the market in 2013. We have continued to incorporate product improvements and so the HMV Survivor I is still state-of-the-art today and something of a flagship in our portfolio. In recent years, we have been able to attract customers not only in Europe, but also beyond – and there is still a lot of interest in the vehicle right now.
A glance at your press stand reveals a completely new product, the Insight. What’s it all about?
We presented the Insight on Monday and the interest is enormous, much greater than expected. It is a passive door opening device that we developed together with a special police unit from Vienna and for which we see potential primarily with special task forces and special operations forces. Although there has been a need for this on the market for many years, there has been no comparable product to date.
What is a passive door opening device?
There are active door opening devices such as shotguns, hydraulic presses or rams, which are used to actively open doors when they are accessed. Passive door opening systems support the emergency team by preventing the door from being deliberately closed again after an initial push. This releases the maximum room angle by lifting the door leaf and locking it in the setting for police intervention work. In order to actually be able to enter a room, passive measures must always be used in combination with active measures. The use of Insight makes access easier for the emergency services, while at the same time minimizing the potential danger – also because the device can be used as a so-called block stick. The Insight is fixed halfway up the door frame, so if someone tries to storm out of the room and attack the emergency services, they must first pass under or over the stick, which gives the emergency services time to react appropriately.
How did the development go?
In principle, there has been a need for such a product for decades, and actually worldwide. However, for whatever reason, no developer has yet been found to take on the topic. We became aware of the topic around three years ago and immediately took an interest in it – after all, we have other products in addition to vehicles. So we started to think together about what such a product would have to look like, what performance parameters it would have to meet and what materials would be suitable. Ultimately, one thing led to another and we started developing the first prototype two years ago, which we then put through its paces and tested. The aim was to cure all teething troubles as early as possible so that, at the end of the day, we would have a device that could be used reliably at any time without any technical work or a lot of servicing. And I think we succeeded in doing that quite well.
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