50 YEARS OF COLLABORATION – ONLY ONE GEAR, AND IT IS FORWARD… ALSO IN THE FUTURE

There are exactly 8 kilometres between Skjern and Tarm. A short drive through the flat West Jutland landscape that most people do on autopilot. But for VM Tarm and HydraSpecma, those 10 minutes on the highway are much more than just asphalt – it is the lifeblood of one of the industry's most enduring partnerships. A collaboration where they do not just talk about solutions, but roll up their sleeves and find them together, right on the workshop floor.

In the heavy transport industry, there is no such thing as "good enough". When a tanker from VM Tarm rolls out of the factory, it must be able to withstand the most extreme conditions, whether it is hauling milk on Danish highways or slurry in the Norwegian mountains. The hydraulics are the heart of the vehicle; it is the power that ensures the pumps run, the crane lifts, and the trailer empties exactly as it should. If the heart stops, the customer loses money.

This is precisely why the two companies have worked closely together as partners for nearly half a century. It is not a relationship built on thick contracts, but on something much stronger: Trust, technical ingenuity, and a mutual understanding that you never leave a good friend in a jam when "production is burning".

WHEN IT ALL STARTED (PROBABLY...)
No one at either HydraSpecma or VM Tarm can say with absolute certainty exactly which day the first handshake was exchanged. But the roots run deep.

  – The relationship started way back in the early '80s, at least before my time, Henrik Sillesen says with a wry smile.

He has been with HydraSpecma since 1982 and currently serves as Group Director. He has seen technology transition from simple valves to complex, computer-controlled systems, but the spirit of their partnership remains the same.

Jan Hjort Pedersen, Sales Engineer at HydraSpecma, is one of the permanent contact persons who knows the hallways at VM Tarm as well as his own. To him, it is all about the institutional knowledge embedded in both houses:

  – When you have been close partners for so many years, you build an understanding that goes beyond the ordinary. This long-standing relationship means we can solve challenges together without lengthy explanations. It comes down to a solid technical foundation and a culture where we know each other's standards.

VM TARM A/S

Located: Tarm, Denmark

Employees: 250

Business: Builds custom tank trailers from stainless steel and aluminium, producing approximately 300 trailers each year.

A SIMPLER EVERYDAY LIFE BEHIND THE SCENES
The goal of the partnership is actually quite simple: To make everyday life at VM Tarm as efficient as possible. The entire company comprises the administration building along with 30 enormous production halls, where everything is designed, welded, assembled, and mounted. To ensure that VM Tarm does not spend unnecessary internal resources coordinating logistics and technical integration with many different suppliers in such a massive setup, the threads are gathered in Skjern.

It is about removing complexity through a unified setup. By handling everything from technical consulting to inventory management in one place, HydraSpecma ensures that individual components – from pumps to valves – function flawlessly as a single unit. This also means that the right products are always ready on the shelf, exactly when they are needed in production in Tarm.

DIRECT ACCESS TO TECHNICAL EXPERTISE
VM Tarm is known for one thing: They do not build standard vehicles. Every single truck is a puzzle of customer-specific requirements, which means the hydraulics often have to be designed from scratch. This places high demands on the people in the workshop.

For VM Tarm, it is crucial not to end up in an anonymous automated phone menu, but to have direct access to a team of specialists who know their specific setup. Flemming Becker, Workshop Foreman at VM Tarm, articulates the value of this sparring:

  – We are not hydraulics troubleshooting experts ourselves. If an unforeseen challenge arises on a trailer, it is of immense value to us to be able to get technical assistance out with measuring equipment and data loggers right away. It saves us oceans of time because otherwise, we would have to solve it by guesswork. Here, we get the fault located immediately.

One of the permanent resources VM Tarm relies on is the Application Team, where Application Engineer Freddy Toft is part of the dedicated contact setup. He functions as an extension of their own team. Jesper Mathiesen, Workshop Supervisor at VM Tarm, explains:

  – It means everything that we can call and work together to attach sensors and have a dialogue about what makes the most sense to measure. Afterward, the data is analysed by the specialists in Skjern so we can quickly see where we need to adjust the setup. It is this direct access to competent people that makes the difference – they are not afraid to drive over here and help find the fault.

TESTING AND PEACE OF MIND IN PRACTICE
When walking into the massive final assembly hall, where 11 enormous tankers stand side by side being prepped for the final equipment test, it becomes clear how complex the puzzle is. Even though reality on the road is harsh, HydraSpecma's comprehensive test setup in Skjern provides vital, fundamental security before the vehicles leave the premises.

Workshop Foreman Karsten Iversen shows the way between the large projects, and when conversation turns to how the collaboration and daily operations are running, his response is prompt and full of satisfaction:

  – It is running really well at the moment, so it must be the right setup we have created, Karsten Iversen says, adding with a big, West Jutland smile:

  – So we almost need to change it up a bit, just so we can get some challenges again.

The humour reflects a deep, mutual trust in the shared setup. Karsten sees the value of the preliminary work as a vital piece of their own delivery reliability:  

  – It gives us peace of mind knowing that the components are thoroughly tested in a professional environment before we mount them. As a result, we rarely experience faults on the delivered components, which supports the flow throughout our entire production.

SOLUTIONS THAT PUSH BOUNDARIES
The partnership is truly put to the test when tight deadlines press hard. Flemming Becker recalls a case involving a tanker bound for Norway that was equipped with a slurry cannon.

  – We were struggling to get the high-pressure pump up to the correct pressure, and it was critical for the delivery. Here, we received sparring to build a completely new valve setup that could handle the task. That meant we made the deadline, and the customer in Norway was satisfied, Flemming says.

If there is "dirt in a valve block" in the middle of a high-pressure assembly, help is only 10 minutes away. Karsten Iversen notes that HydraSpecma's organisation is geared to act swiftly:

  – We have had instances where we drove over to Skjern with a block, and their technicians stood ready to fix the problem immediately. That gets the customer back on the road in no time.

TOWARD FUTURE HORIZONS
Even though the partnership is now hitting the 50-year mark, neither party is resting on their laurels. The transport industry is in the midst of a green transformation, where electrification and energy optimisation are taking up more and more space on the drawing board in Tarm.

As an Elite Partner with Danfoss, HydraSpecma acts as a technical radar, spotting the right solutions early. It is about ensuring that VM Tarm always has access to a unified organisation of knowledge, whether it applies to optimising hydraulics to save fuel or entirely new ways of controlling the tankers of tomorrow.