Sparsely populated areas need basic goods and services just as much as urban areas. This includes the ability to buy food, as well as access to education and health care. These services are a challenge in rural areas of Germany, but they are almost impossible in more exotic regions of the world.

Mobile clinics are used to provide medical care to residents of remote areas in Egypt. The basic concept is clear: There are few hospitals, and patients have to endure long and difficult journeys to get to them. So the clinic comes to the patients.

One of the leading manufacturers of such vehicles is WAS, Wietmarscher Ambulanz- und Sonderfahrzeugbau GmbH, based in Emsbüren, Lower Saxony. The company has been supplying medical vehicles to the Egyptian health care system for many years. When the time came to find a suitable vehicle outfitter for the mobile clinics concept, WAS was chosen once again. Gunnar Gering, Key Account Director at WAS, recalls: “We convinced them with a customized vehicle concept based on the 5-ton version of the Mercedes Sprinter. It was designed to meet the needs of general medical and gynecological care. Obstetric care is a particular challenge in the sparsely populated regions of Egypt. With its customized approach, WAS ultimately won the contract to supply 500 mobile clinics.

If you can imagine such an operation, you can see that there are many challenges to overcome, problems that do not exist in the inpatient setting of a hospital. One key challenge is power. In particular, childbirth can take several hours or even days, and a simple setup with a second on-board battery or similar would hardly be enough to bridge this period. That is why WAS uses mobile generators. Gunnar Gering describes the requirements: “We need a generator that is extremely robust. The mobile clinics are in operation for many hours, so it should be a diesel unit. Because of our good experiences in the past, we decided to use a Hatz generator in this case.”

The generator is based on the Hatz 1D81C single-cylinder engine. This can be connected to the vehicle’s 12V network and provides up to 9.5 kVA depending on the version. Like all Hatz engines, the generators from Ruhstorf are extremely resistant to externals. Desert dust or vibrations on bumpy roads are no challenge for Hatz generators. Another advantage of the generators is particularly important for medical use, as Gunnar Gering explains: “Compared to others, Hatz generators are relatively quiet. This is an absolute benefit in medical care. Nobody who is sick or, in the case of obstetrics, giving birth to a baby, wants to be disturbed by the loud noise of a diesel generator.”

This is due to the great smoothness of the 1D81C engine. This is achieved by a compensation weight on the flywheel side crank arm as well as balance weights cast in the flywheel. The single-cylinder engines are also environmentally friendly thanks to their Stage V certification.

Quiet, powerful, and environmentally friendly, Hatz generators support WAS vehicles in challenging operations in the most remote regions of Egypt. This benefits medical personnel and patients alike.