Aral invests in premium portal washers
Aral plans to install new premium gantry car washes at around 100 service stations across Germany by early 2024. Old machines will be replaced by new ones, according to the German service station company. The new gantry washes will offer optimized programs, higher speed and better wash quality, without manual pre-cleaning.
Aral calls itself ‘Germany’s largest service station provider of vehicle washes’. They wash about 50 million cars a year and are planning further expansions.
“Whether washing, refueling, loading or shopping – we want to make it as easy as possible for our customers,” said Aral CEO Achim Bothe at the opening of one of the first new SuperWash portal car washes at the Aral service station at Riehler Str. 12-14 in Cologne. “We focus on top quality, also in our car wash. Thanks to the new technology, we clean even more effectively, our customers save time and they can enjoy a brilliantly cleaned vehicle afterwards.
Bothe also mentioned ARAL plans to extend their range of REWE To Go stores to around 900 Aral locations by the end of the year. The SuperWash offer is part of Aral’s convenience activities, one of the company’s strategic growth areas.
Countdown
At the new portal washes, the wash code is conveniently entered via a barcode or touch display. During the wash, an ascending LED bar or display shows the current program step and a countdown informs how long the wash process will take.
LEDs on the floor rails make it easier to enter the SuperWash system. The new systems have significantly more sensors, enabling more precise vehicle measurement.
Because of this, the washing time will be reduced by 10 to 15 percent. On particularly busy days, this means that around 15 percent more vehicle washes can be carried out.
Recycling
The new gantry car washes also conserve natural resources. Water recycling is improved. On average, only around 20 liters of fresh water need to be fed into the water cycle of the SuperWash systems per wash cycle – the rest is service water that is filtered and recycled. At 200 liters per wash, the proportion is roughly 10 percent fresh water and around 90 percent process water.
Other measures include a special chemical formulation for which, depending on the manufacturer, up to 80 percent of the components are produced from renewable raw materials.
In-house development
Aral operates more than 1,000 portal car washes, 100 locations with self-service car wash boxes and 30 car washes in its network. The modern premium standard was largely developed by Aral’s own research department in Bochum. “The machines were built specifically for Aral after we developed the spray system and program from scratch in our research,” says Dr. Arnim Fischoeder, who oversees product development at Aral Research. “From the appropriate spray system to spray pressure and volume to the program sequence, the new gantry washers are a Bochum in-house development.”
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