4 posts tagged “suspensions”
17/9/09
Source: http://trailer-bodybuilders.com/news/firestone_closing_noblesville_plant_0917/
Firestone Industrial Products Company, LLC (FSIP) today announced that it will close its Noblesville, Ind., air-spring plant after a gradual phase-down of operations. Although the plant closure date has not been finalized, it is expected to occur in the second half of 2009.
“The decision to close the Noblesville plant was especially difficult because we have been part of the Noblesville community for 72 years,” said Mike Cerio, President, FSIP. “But the reality is that the plant is no longer globally competitive.”
The company notified Noblesville teammates and the United Steelworkers (USW) of a potential plant closure in June. As required by its labor contract, the company entered into immediate negotiations with the USW and determined there were no other viable solutions to the problems the plant faces.
The air-spring market is increasingly global, making it difficult for FSIP — the only U.S. manufacturer of air springs — to compete with manufacturers with significantly lower production costs overseas. The Noblesville plant is further disadvantaged by an antiquated facility and equipment.
21/03/07
ArvinMeritor Inc. has introduced its RideSentry trailer suspension with a new PinLoc slider locking mechanism. The PinLoc mechanism reduces the potential for incidents by using an angled pin design and an air assist with a parking brake interlock to securely engage the slider pins before the trailer is put in transit.
The new pin system — announced here at the Mid-America Trucking Show, will be in production in June 2007.
“Our research has shown that many trailers are operated without the slide pins properly engaged, which can lead to an on-road hazard. We recognized the opportunity to help our customers and our industry with a patented PinLoc system that reduces the chances of this happening,” said Sergio Carvalho, vice president and general manager of North American Trailer Systems for ArvinMeritor. “This situation can create risk for truck drivers and motorists, while potentially causing fleets and owner-operators economic hardship.”
Carvalho said the company’s new suspension is optimized to provide reliable performance for dry and refrigerated van trailers in capacities of 38,000 and 40,000 pounds. It provides all of the safety and performance enhancements of the RideSentry suspension family, unveiled at last year’s truck show here.
New PinLoc Slider Locking Mechanism
The addition of the PinLoc slider locking mechanism provides a reliable method to ensure that drivers or lot attendants don’t accidentally leave slider pins disengaged after repositioning the trailer’s slider mechanism, a condition that potentially can result in substantial damage to the slider, trailer and could cause vehicle instability, the company said.
Features and Benefits
PinLoc combines an air assist, parking brake interlock and its groundbreaking angled pins. These features combine to compensate for operator error and ensure pins engage in body rails. If the trailer is operated without pins engaged and trailer brakes are applied, conventional pins will ratchet down body rails until the slide box impacts with the stop bar. Tests have shown that at speeds above four mph conventional pins will not engage, according a news release about the system.
PinLoc has been tested up to speeds of 70 mph with the pins engaging in the first body rail hole every time. Drivers will appreciate PinLoc as it improves slider relocating efficiency and increases safety due to its simple operation.
In addition to the added safety and security of the PinLoc slider locking system, the new RideSentry trailer suspension also was engineered for reliability and performance.
Key features include:
· Structural durability — high-strength steel, contoured lateral plates, beaded center hanger brackets, and new profile side rails provide best in class buckling, racking and curbing resistance.
· Premium bushing design — bonded rubber upper control arm bushings with steel thrust washers have industry-leading warranty coverage of seven years parts / five years labor.
· E-coat protected slider — for enhanced corrosion resistance and durability.
· Lightweight system design — extra weight savings from lightweight 5000 series axles, axle brackets and upper control arms for increased cargo hauling capacity.
· Reliable performance — Equipped with premium shocks and long-life, lower pressure air springs. When equipped with Meritor® MA series Q+ brake linings, fleets will enjoy significantly extended brake service intervals.
In addition, “the parallelogram design of the new unit continues to provide the benefits that operators have come to expect from Meritor trailer suspensions,” said the company, with “no dock-walk by design to help protect trailer and cargo from damage caused by the fore and aft movement of conventional trailing arm suspensions during loading and unloading of cargo at commercial loading docks; exceptionally smooth ride; unmatched roll stability; and TOFC ready — well-suited to trailer-on-flatcar use, unlike trailing arm suspensions.“
20/03/06
HOLLAND, MI, March 20, 2006 – The Holland Group (Holland) has announced the introduction of its CB2300 Trailer Air Suspension/Axle System. The CB2300 is a 23,000 pound capacity offering for the fixed frame specialty trailer market.
The CB2300 features SwingAlign™, the industry's fastest and most convenient axle alignment system, high strength cast equalizing beams that provide exceptional strength, as well as significant weight-savings and cost value. Holland’s patented SwingAlign™ technology has gained widespread market acceptance since its introduction in 2004 on Holland’s CB4000 Trailer Air Suspension/Axle System.
“The CB2300 will significantly advance our specialty offering,” said Ken Griswold, Trailer Suspension Systems Product Manager for The Holland. “The product has new technologies, reduced weight and will be a unitized system with value added features such as SwingAlign™ and extended life brake linings positioned as standard features.”
01/01/07
ANGLED PINS combined with an air-assist mechanism that has a parking brake interlock will ensure that pins engage and eliminate slider bending on trailers, Jeff Davis said in the “Trailer Suspension Issues” at the CTEA's Manufacturers' Technical Conference.
Davis, ArvinMeritor's director of sales for trailer products, said damage occurs when locking pins are not engaged, the trailer is operated, and the driver brakes.
“All sliders bend,” he said. “They just bend at different levels. We've tested every single slider available today. They'll bend at between 15 and 21 mph.
“Slider damage is typically the result of high speed impacts, and not a ‘unique’ dynamic event or fatiguing event. No existing pin mechanism or air-assist device affects pin engagement once the vehicle exceeds 4 mph. Above 4 mph, pins on all designs will not engage, resulting in a slider collision with the rear stop bar.
“In severe instances where the speed was high, you can bend a suspension. It's really basic physics. It's all associated with the slide distance and velocity of the vehicle. If the slide distance is six feet, that bogey can reach a maximum velocity of 18.15 mph (and 25.67 mph at 12 feet). In our testing, we discovered that you can build a slider that will withstand levels up to the maximum slide distance. But the net result is you destroy the trailer. And since we knew OEMs and fleets wouldn't be happy if we did that, there had to be another way. How do you prevent this from becoming a problem?”
He said ArvinMeritor had developed a theory that drivers were making mistakes, so the company wanted to understand the severity. It hired a contractor who went out to weigh stations, truck stops, and terminals in North America, taking a survey of 6473 vehicles.
ArvinMeritor discovered that 38 had pins disengaged while the vehicle was in use. (In 85% of those, the driver had released the handle in the intermediate position, so the pins were poised to hit the next hole in the rail.) The net result was .59% of the 6473 vehicles.
“It doesn't seem like much,” Davis said. “When I first looked at it, I thought, ‘This doesn't prove anything. This isn't really a very big issue.’ Then I started looking at it in-depth. The point is, if you have 1000 vehicles in the fleet and an 80% utilization rate — which actually might be low — and 65% are going to be moved today, that means 3.59% are running down road right now in that fleet without pins engaged. If that fleet runs 333 days a year, that means every trailer in the fleet at some point this year will go down the road without pins engaged. And that's a problem. There's not only damage and maintenance costs, but also safety at risk here.”
He said angled locking pins prevent slider impacts when the slider pull handle is released. The pins will engage in the first hole every time.
The handle was released in over 85% of buckling incidents. He said if the operator forgets to release the handle, angled pins alone will not prevent a slider impact.
“Combining angled pins with an air-assist mechanism that has a parking brake interlock ensures pins engage and eliminates slider bending,” he said.
He said ThermAlert, a wheel-end temperature sensor, and SimilAir, a composite spring for 22,400-lb axle ratings, are two proven ways to increase safety.
ThermAlert, a value-added option of the Meritor Tire Inflation System, alerts drivers to stop for repairs before serious damage occurs due to elevated wheel-end temperatures.
If the temperature of the wheel end approaches a critical state, the thermal screw will melt, pressurized air will vent through the hubcap tee vent, the indicator light will come on, and an audible sound will occur at the wheel end. The components that caused the high temperatures are then inspected and repaired before the trailer is returned to service.
Davis said SimilAir is a direct replacement for a steel spring and compares favorably to air ride and steel mechanical suspensions. It is paired with Meritor axle and a standard mechanical suspension from Holland, Hutch, or Reyco.
He said data from CK Marketing and Communications, which interviewed 60 fleets, indicates they had an average of 2.8 wheel-end failures per year, two wheel losses, and 1.4 trailer fires.
“What was the economic cost?” he said. “$23,000 for fires and $1300 for wheel loss. But the cost can be far greater than fixing a piece of equipment. You can end up with all kinds of liability issues.”
Dana's Randy Billian said components should be used as intended.
“You can't fool steel,” he said. “There are limits to it. Keep everybody informed.”
His other tips:
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Know your customer's specifications. “A lot of times, it's helpful to call a customer and get him involved when you're dealing with setting things up.”
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Communicate your customer's needs to Dana. “Sometimes, a customer may ask you for something you don't know about, something new we're introducing in the field. So give us a call and let us get involved.”
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Use suppliers to manage product complexity. “We try to be as nimble as possible and have products available, but we also have lead times.”
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Brakes. “In the trailer market, we change linings. If you have a trailer that has only 20,000 pounds on the axle, you do not want to specify the 25,000-pound lining. You'll tend to get a noisy lining when you over-spec components.”
Speaking about vehicle integration, he said there are three widths for slider boxes: 42" for 71.5" track, 48" for 77.5" track, and 54" for 83.5" track. In body rail compatibility, he said there are three body rails: Hutch, Binkley, and TTMA.
He said that with S cam brake, there is the option of a single or double anchor pin, and a trailer style or truck style.
Hendrickson's Alain Lamothe said spec'ing isn't rocket science, but it still requires a degree of care.
“A lot of end users want a trailer and they want it now,” he said, “and they want to pick whatever you've got. We need to do a better job from the sales side to let them know it doesn't work that way. You need to find out where he's going to be using it and what he really needs. Some people want it as light as possible. That may save on the suspension, but what does that really mean? Can you put more on the trailer? If you can't, maybe you should go heavier. At the end of the day, they're going to pay more for a lighter suspension and they're not going to get any benefit out of it.
“There are a lot of little things that the end user doesn't seem to get. It's all education. It's trying to work with our customers to know what they need. What they think they need and what they need are not always the same thing.
“If you can take all the components and design them together, you usually come up with a better design overall. Everything's working together, as opposed to picking this off the shelf and that off the shelf.”
He said that once a spring ride suspension is fully loaded, “it probably rides as well as air ride. The problem comes when it's not loaded. With air ride, you have a fixed ladder on the axle that does all the work. The nice thing about it is you can change the pressure. As you add load to it, the pressure goes up and the spring rate changes, so it gives you a good ride all the time.
“When we rate them, we assume the trailer's on a nice, even surface. Driving around, that doesn't happen often. So once you go into dynamic loading, it makes a big difference. You need to know what's going on, what you're going to do with that trailer.”
Fuwa US's Jules Guillemette said installers and designers should always explore all the alternatives because there are several lift mechanisms available that may work for a particular installation.
“There are also different spring brake locations that can be achieved when your application allows,” he said. “Analyze your requirements, discuss it with your suppliers, and decide on the best solution.
“If your application allows, a different suspension may provide clearance to locate the spring brake behind the axle. In some cases, the spring brake can be installed in the vertical position. Always verify the brake geometry and make adjustments as required.
“Spring brakes can be installed with suspensions that use a forward lift system. There are several types of lift systems available. SSA can mount spring brakes in a number of positions. Long stroke spring brakes are not always required. Consulting your suppliers will help decide which solution will work best for you.”
