Mega Manufacturing - Season 1

It is the largest manufacturer of fire trucks in the world: Pierce Manufacturing in Wisconsin, USA. 1400 trucks are being built here every year – and each truck is one of a kind. Customers determine every detail from the first sketch on the 3D model to the finished truck. More than 13,000 individual components - most of them laboriously crafted by hand - are turned into an absolutely individual fire-fighting vehicle. Even the lettering and coats of arms so popular in North America are the result of Pierces manual work with brushes and genuine gold leaf. All this is only possible with a lot of experience. The three thousand employees have on average twelve years of professional experience. After all, not just any product is manufactured here, but in case of emergencies their quality is a matter of life and death. The demands placed on a fire -fighting truck are correspondingly high: heavy as a truck, it must nevertheless be extremely manoeuvrable and fast. Take a mega-frame, a cab equipped with lots of high-tech, a high-performance water pump and a gigantic ladder: We accompany the production of a popular Enforcer fire truck from the very first step - the construction of the chassis - to the final acceptance by the customer. One of the highlights is the assembly of the TAK4 wheel axle. Developed in the military sector, it enables cornering at top speed without tipping over. After approximately three months of production, the grand finale is the installation of a gigantic 33-meter turntable ladder on the roof of the Enforcer. A nerve-wracking task for the workers. Using two crane winches, they have to install the component, which weighs tons, with millimetre precision. No cable must be damaged. The final inspection shows whether the installation was successful. Then the customer receives his very own personal emergency vehicle.