By Truck Parts & Service Staff
Following is a roundup of news and announcements from the 2009 Technology & Maintenance Council Annual Meeting & Transportation Technology Exhibition held Feb. 9-12 in Orlando, Fla. The exhibit portion of the event featured more than 270 product and service providers.
More than 100 TMC Task Forces met to work on Recommended Practices for equipment maintenance and engineering. TMC Recommended Practices have been adopted as industry standards by commercial vehicle makers, component manufacturers, aftermarket parts and diagnostic equipment providers and end users.
Five Receive Silver Spark Plug Award
TMC’s highest honor, the Silver Spark Plug Award, was awarded to five industry professionals for “outstanding contributions to the improvement of equipment, maintenance, industry-related technology and management practices.”
The 2009 award recipients are (pictured from left to right):
- Mike Goodheart, regional manager for The Penray Companies;
- Kevin Tomlinson, director of maintenance for South Shore Transportation;
- Roger Duff, president, Second Pair of Eyes
Transportation Services; - Mari Skippers, business analyst for Eaton Corp.-
Roadranger; and - Mike Crull, director of sales and marketing for Remy, Inc. (not pictured).
Meritor Wabco Shows Air Disc Brakes
On the tarmac at a small airport in Orlando, Fla., two fully-loaded Freightliner Columbia tractor-trailers locked up their brakes and came to a complete, smoking, screeching stop in the same distance as a Chevy Impala that was pacing them.
The dramatic presentation was Meritor Wabco’s way of demonstrating the effectiveness of its new PAN 22 single-piston air disc brakes designed for North American commercial trailers. The new brake system is the product of a joint venture between ArvinMeritor and Wabco Vehicle Control Systems and is designed for commercial trailers with 22.5-inch wheels and axles rated to 22,000 pounds. It is currently available as a trailer OEM option.
According to Jon Morrison, president and general manager of Meritor Wabco, the PAN 22 combines best-in-class braking torque output with low weight and long pad life. The overall low cost of ownership has contributed to the PAN family of brakes registering as one of the most cost-effective air disc brake ranges available.
The brake system weighs only 79 pounds, including pads, and consists of only 18 individual parts, Morrison said. The brakes feature larger, thicker pads than competitive designs, which results in longer pad replacement intervals, and its single-piston clamping unit design is proven technology that also is used in Meritor Wabco’s PAN 17 and PAN 19 air disc brakes, he said. “It’s a compact and efficient design that easily adapts to axles, wheels and suspensions. It compensates for taper wear and enables optimal pad wear utilization.”
Morrison said Meritor Wabco’s new brake family is an important step forward in highway safety that further closes the cost gap between air disc brakes and drum brakes. “It’s ideal for customers who want the outstanding stopping performance, directional stability and high fade resistance of an air disc brake, but at a lifecycle cost that adds value to trailers,” he said.
DD15 Engine Turbo Compounding Wins TWNA Technical Achievement Award
The Truck Writers of North America (TWNA) announced Detroit Diesel Corporation’s DD15 engine turbo compounding as the winner of its Technical Achievement Award for 2008.
The award recognizes a product or service that exhibits technical innovation, has a wide applicability to the trucking industry, offers significant benefits to users and is widely available. Complete vehicles are not eligible, but individual components and systems are.
The turbo compounding system employs a second exhaust turbine downstream of the standard turbocharger. In addition to providing a more efficient source of exhaust back-pressure for the engine’s Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) system, the secondary turbine’s output is hydro-dynamically coupled to the engine’s drive gears.
Finalists for the award included: Bendix’s Adaptive Cruise Control; Cummins Westport’s ISL G Natural Gas Engine; Eaton’s Hybrid-Electric System; Eaton’s Hydraulic Launch Assist System; Goodyear’s DuraSeal Trailer Tire; Great Dane’s CorroGuard Undercoating; and Meritor WABCO’s OnGuard Collision Avoidance System.
Detroit Diesel Previews SCR Technology
Noting that its test trucks already have logged 12 million miles using its BlueTec selective catalytic reduction (SCR) technology, Detroit Diesel and its parent company Daimler Trucks North America briefed journalists on a host of SCR-related issues.
Company spokesman David Siler noted that Detroit Diesel’s DD13, DD15 and soon-to-be-released DD16 engines will use a “unique” one-box packaging system optimized to reduce exhaust gas restriction, resulting in low backpressure and improved fuel economy. But because the system is modular in design, fleets also can opt for a two-box configuration to meet specific vocational and specialized applications.
Overall, Daimler and Detroit Diesel engineers say pre-production testing up to this point has shown increased fuel economy of 5 percent for its SCR-equipped trucks. Even after taking into account the increased costs of purchasing DEF fluid, the company confidently is predicting fleets still will see overall fuel economy increases of 3 percent compared to pre-2010 engines.
Furthermore, Siler notes that a typical 23-gallon DEF tank will add only 382 pounds to a truck’s GVWR, and that the truck will be capable of driving “from Los Angeles to Maine” and back on one full tank of DEF without having to refill it. And even though the truck’s engine will derate should a driver attempt to operate with an empty DEF tank, “at no time will the truck be put out of service or come to a complete stop.”
Pilot to Offer DEF Dispensing Units
Pilot Travel Centers announced that it will roll out 25 bulk diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) dispensing units per quarter, starting in the third quarter of this year. Ultimately, 100 of Pilot’s locations nationally will have bulk dispensing capabilities located at fuel islands, and all 328 truckstops will have packaged containers of DEF for sale inside.
