MORITA NEW CONCEPT CAR - Forest Fire Fighting Concept Car Wins 2011 IDEA Gold Award

「Morita’s Forest Fire Fighting Concept Car」Wins 2011 IDEA Gold Award

Morita Holdings Corporation has been awarded a 2011 IDEA Gold Award — the highest possible award — in the Commercial and Industrial Products category for its forest fire fighting concept car.
In awarding the IDEA Gold Award, the judges praised the design of the forest fire fighting concept car: “The Wildfire truck illustrates the power of a bold, refined prototype to test innovative thinking by richly probing a market space with a visceral, hands-on experience of the features and brand.”

IDEA is prestigious international design prize in USA

Awarded by the Industrial Designers Society of America, IDEA are internationally renowned product design awards and one of the most preeminent awards in the United States. While recognizing design excellence in many industries — including consumer electronics, household goods, transportation, sports goods, furniture, and medical equipment, the goal of IDEA is to convey the value of design to the general public and the business world
http://www.idsa.org/awards/idea/commercial-industrial-products/wildfire-truck-concept

Won the German Red Dot Design Award “Best of the Best” prize for 2011!

Morita's Forest Fire Fighting Concept Car was awarded with the "Best of the Best" product title, the highest prize in the mobility sector of the German Red Dot Design Award "Design Concept", which is one of the world's leading design awards.
The awarded Forest Fire Fighting Concept Car is a futuristic vehicle developed by Engineering, Development and Design teams of Morita Group by making an all-out effort in order to overcome the challenges relating to large-scale forest fires that have frequently occurred in the world.
The Concept Car features comprehensive information communication functions so that it can serve as a local information-providing center capable of responding to quickly-changing fire conditions including the direction of fire spreading depending on the weather and the forest population. It is also designed to be able to run over bad roads and spray water while running.
With the possible difficulty in finding the source of water during forest fire fighting taken into account, this fire trucks is equipped with Morita's original compressed air foam system (CAFS) that can deliver superior firefighting capability with a small amount of water.

About the Red Dot Design Award

The Red Dot Design Award is a world-famous product design prize awarded by the Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen in Germany. The Award is recognized as one of the world's top three product design prizes along with the iF Design Awards (Germany) and the International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) (USA). Product candidates for the Red Dot Design Award are evaluated based on seven criteria including degree of innovation, aesthetics, functionality, ergonomics and feasibility of the product design. Selected products are awarded with the "Best of the Best" title.

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It has bean reported forest fires have caused significant damage in environment all over the world.

The design of this car offers satellite communication link to communicate with other vehicles or headquarter, CAFS unit to extinguish fire with little water, and LED lighting system to light up the scene. Its communication system will enable firefighters to readily share the real time information even in a remote area like forest and pave way for effective control of the disaster scene.

  • Forest fires as seen from an aircraft.
    ▲Forest fires as seen from an aircraft.
  • Satellite image of forest fires.
    ▲Satellite image of forest fires.

A Concept Car for Forest Fire

A Concept Car for Forest Fire Wildfire Truck

■Overall length: approx. 7.2 m
■Overall height: approx. 3.6 m
■Overall width: approx. 2.5 m
■Approx. 11500kg (Max crew: 4)

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Dependable “Samurai Warrior”, in hard firefighting

Operation Deck

Operation deck

The operation deck is placed behind the driver’s seat. It is capable of transmitting and receiving information to and from the headquarter, a helicopter or other teams, and enables firefighters to check weather and other information on forest fires, which are greatly affected by the weather conditions and spread rapidly in wind direction.

Gathered much attention at INTERSCHUTZ!

  • Gather the information of forest fires at operation desk
    ▲Gather the information of forest fires at operation desk
  • Forest fire information(thermal image)
    ▲Forest fire information(thermal image)
  • Geographical information system
    ▲Geographical information system
  • Vane anemometer
    ▲Vane anemometer

Pump Control (Touch Panel Display)

Pump operation touch panel display

The device enables operation and monitoring of the CAFS (Compressed Air Foam System). Fire fighters can monitor the pump status, control and maintain the engine rotation and speed at optimum and start pumping the water simply by touching a button.

  • Switches to control the CAFS are integrated on a touch panel display
  • Switches to control the CAFS are integrated on a touch panel display
  • ▲Switches to control the CAFS are integrated on a touch panel display
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Discharge Nozzles

Discharge Nozzles

The multi-purpose nozzles, good for both water and CAF, use small amount of water and thus are highly effective for forest fires, where water is extremely scarce. Attached to doors they are operable even when the truck is in motion.

  • Nozzles on the doors enhance the mobility of fire fighting
    ▲Nozzles on the doors enhance the mobility of fire fighting
  • Flow rates and discharge patterns are selectable
    ▲Flow rates and discharge patterns are selectable

Gull Wing Doors and Movable Rack

Gull Wing Doors and Movable Rack

The gull wing doors can be easily opened and closed even in narrow areas and do not hinder firefighters’ movements around the vehicle. The motor-driven hydraulic cabinet can be lowered to suitable levels to enable easy access to the equipments.

  • Gull wing doors on both sides
    ▲Gull wing doors on both sides
  • Easy to take out equipments
    ▲Easy to take out equipments
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CAFS unit

CAFS unit

Opening the hydraulic driven rear hatch will revel the well designed easy to use CAFS unit
CAF discharge rate: Max. 3,600L / min
Foam proportioning ratio:0.1%~1.0 %
Foam solution / Air ratio:1:5~1:20

  • CAFS unit and well designed operation panel
  • CAFS unit and well designed operation panel
  • ▲CAFS unit and well designed operation panel

LED Lighting

LED Lighting

LED lamps, installed on both gull wing doors, illuminate the operation site around the vehicle when the doors are opened.

  • Illuminates the work site
    ▲Illuminates the work site
  • Illuminates the work site

Telescopic LED Lighting Tower

Telescopic LED Lighting Tower

The LED lighting tower fitted with vertex remote controlled camera supports nighttime fire fighting operations by illuminating the scene and by providing the visuals of surrounding to the firefighters.

  • Telescopic LED Lighting Tower
    ▲Telescopic LED Lighting Tower
  • Mounted live camera
    ▲Mounted live camera
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Thoughts on Wildfire Truck

Thoughts on Wildfire Truck

This vehicle is a prototype and not for sale as yet.