The VÖGELE main factory

Quality starts here

Paving high-quality roads efficiently and economically demands reliable specialist machinery. Our main factory in Ludwigshafen on the Rhine in Germany is geared precisely to meeting those demands. At the world's most advanced road paver manufacturing facility, a team of specialists develops and builds 31 different machine types and 12 screed types. Optimal processes are guaranteed by the workforce of over 1,200 expert staff, intelligent production machinery, and efficient factory design.

370,000 m²

Site

100,000 m²

Roofed area

2,900 m²

Training area

Quality means precision
  • Did you know, for example, that we use special honing machines to remove microscopic imperfections that are up to 20 times finer than a human hair?
  • ... the assembly of a VÖGELE paver is assured by more than 500 test points?
  • ... the digital operator information system assists our employees at every stage of the production process, so eliminating any errors?
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Intelligent manufacturing technologies

The aim of our production operation is to provide customers with flawless, customized machines and spare parts while keeping delivery lead times as short as possible. We are continually investing in intelligent machinery and automated processes to meet the high demand for road pavers, power feeders and screeds with maximum efficiency. This enables us to increase our capacities, consistently avoid errors, and streamline processes. We focus particularly on our screed production.

Screed production technology
Expert staff

Our employees are specialists. Their dedication, know-how and customer focus ensure the success of our products every day. They are enthusiastically committed to road construction, and are the key pillars in building and maintaining our high quality standards. That's why we place great value on our in-house training programs, as well as offering exciting career development opportunities, and a highly motivational work environment. For more information on job opportunities and current openings, visit our Careers page.

Working for VÖGELE
Sustainable factory concept
  • Low emissions by using solvent-free powder coating rather than wet painting
  • Recycling of waste heat to heat the factory sheds
  • Conservation of heating energy by high-speed doors with minimal opening times
  • Minimized CO₂ emissions based on an efficient combined heat and power plant to generate the required process heat
  • Extraction systems featuring energy-saving vents and frequency converters
  • Biological treatment of wastewater without use of chemical additives
  • Local surface water infiltration
  • State-of-the-art lighting concepts and control systems
  • Intelligent ventilation control: automatically shut down when office windows are opened
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Visual tour
Main building

The large main building houses some 200 administrative and commercial staff. Close connectivity and plenty of meeting rooms make collaboration easy. A highlight is the extensive reception and showroom area featuring actual WIRTGEN GROUP machinery, which provides a spectacular backdrop for customer gatherings and media events.

Research and development

What solutions can be applied to build roads that are even more efficient, higher quality, more sustainable, and safer? That’s the question our development engineers tussle with every day. VÖGELE innovations include intelligent automatic functions such as AutoSet Plus, the InLine Pave paving process, and the WITOS Paving Plus process optimization solution. And in everything we do, we focus not only on the paver, but on the entire road construction process.

Quality management

VÖGELE is a byword for uncompromising quality. That's why our experts check every single component in detail after each step in the production and assembly process. All the features and functions are checked again in detail at the final inspection and acceptance stage. Even then, a paver only gets its inspection sticker once it has been finally released for shipping.

Raw materials store

This holds around 170 different materials, including sectional steel, plates and pipes, which VÖGELE needs for the production of screeds It takes in some 9,000 metric tons of steel sheet, over 140 miles of sectional steel, and 80 miles of pipes a year, all of which are transported onward by roller conveyors directly to the saws or laser cutting machines as appropriate.

Surface treatment

The state-of-the-art powder coating plant is one of the highlights of the production operation. The items being treated are attached to an automated conveyor system, cleaned, and powder- coated in a multi-stage process. Powder coating produces a much better surface quality than conventional wet painting. It is also much more economical and eco-friendly.

Parts store

From this facility, comprising nearly 40,000 square feet of indoor space and an outdoor area of roughly equal size, the Customer Support staff handle around 40,000 parts orders a year from subsidiaries and dealers worldwide. In order to meet all air cargo security requirements, the stores area is physically separated from the production facility, and covered by separate access control.

Screed assembly

This is where the key paver component - the screed - is assembled and undergoes a series of functional checks. The staff assemble the finished screed from its component parts in a total of ten operations. The last four stages feature test systems by which the staff can set all the screed’s hydraulic and electrical functions, check them, and immediately correct them where necessary.

Paver assembly

Modular system design enables different VÖGELE pavers to be assembled on just two lines. On the so-called “big line”, staff assemble Universal, Highway and Special Class pavers in a total of 13 operations. The complete machine is assembled step by step - from the conveyor, the hydraulics, electrics and electronics, to the control software.

Shipping

From Ludwigshafen all round the world: The large-scale finished products facility provides key storage and handling capacity.

Products

The VÖGELE product range includes the right road paver for every application, screeds with innovative precision engineering and VÖGELE PowerFeeders, which deliver pure power for large-scale job sites. And there are excellent solutions for digital road construction, too.

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Technologies

Our innovative machines put our customers on track for success. Advancements in engineering are all well and good – but for us, the focus is on turning these advancements into solutions that benefit our customers. This is what makes us the No. 1 in road pavers.

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