trailer world issue One 2010

20 Issue One 2010 consistent, a better product quality can be achieved with a lower material use. The safety issue is an enduring subject. If you compare the braking distances of cars 10 years ago with those of today, you will find braking distance at least 10% shorter. Where does the chassis manufacturer BPW stand on this and with which concepts? Sager: We need to achieve the same safety standard with trucks (as motor cars) in the mid to long term. However, I would not want to just shorten braking distances. We are already at a good standard with this. There is also a physical limit, at which we are currently already operating. It is more about controlling the vehicle’s driv- ing properties. In the future, quite a lot will happen here. For instance the “jack- knife” effect which is potentially very dan- gerous. Also, in the future, brakes will play an important part, as they are the actua- tors for all preventive safety systems. To- day it is the brake management that is in the forefront, as opposed to the hardware. That brings us to the topic of electronics in the trailer. It is an integral component of the articulated truck, some systems, such as the trailer EBS or TRS cover the towed unit. There is still plenty to be done here; for instance, a stronger overall truck and trailer management. Explain to us the thought process of a devel- oper, what makes him tick? Sager: It is in the nature of an engineer to have the aspiration to constantly improve ex- isting solutions. Of course, there are always challenging topics that constantly require new technologies and new materials. Yet the business consists largely of tasks that initially do not look so exciting. The real challenge is to equate each innovation and its cost to the benefit for the customer. After all, the manu- facturer and his staff have to live on this. It is like sport: If the target is challenging enough and even if you knock over obstacles on the way, you still keep trying until you reach the finishing line. How long-term does BPW development work? Sager: Our thought horizon is 10 years, that is how far ahead we are looking. Spe- cifically, we are working on topics that will achieve the production stage in 4-5 years. We are investigating the benefit that they will generate and the costs they will incur. Once series development takes over, it will go into production within two years. What are the topics that are presently being researched? Sager: The central issue that affects us is: how should we design our components Will you be using new materials for the high stress components? What is the potential that we are talking about in this case? Sager: There are already good exam- ples of that: carbon fibre is already being used on weight optimised semi-trailers – the high material price is offset by the gain in payload. Whether the customer accepts this depends on the lifespan of the prod- uct and the overall transport balance sheet. New materials motivate innovation, and will continue to do so in the future. How- ever, progress is not always apparent, many material optimisations happen in detail, which result in favourable effects for us. As you specifically mention carbon fibre and synthetic materials, approaches have been made repeatedly within our industry. The problems were always the material costs: they are significantly higher than steel com- ponents. It is also about calling entire struc- tures into question. We are studying new concepts that will make optimal use of the material properties and will be able to show a cost benefit within the overall system. Rossenbach: Especially with the major building blocks, an improvement in the ma- terials contributes substantially to progress. A design that better targets the stresses, and is supported by modern calculation meth- ods would take us further. And, because today the material quality is much more »New materials will continue to drive inno- vation in future too. But progress is not always that obvious: many material im- provements are made in intricate details.« Dr. Frank Sager

trailer world issue One 2010

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