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Patents granted recently to Mr. Rode have changed the industry capability to adjust and verify wheel-end bearings on trucks. Until now it was believed1 that there was nothing available to confirm or verify the most desirable settings of preload on these bearings. The new, breakthrough invention is a tool and spindle-locking nut that permit quick and accurate wheel bearing adjustment by utilizing direct reading force measurement. Bearings can be set to either SAE recommended preloads or specific endplay settings. The author has been working on bearing adjustment methods for industrial applications for over forty years, and considers these inventions to be his most important breakthrough for solving this elusive bearing adjustment problem. Consistent wheel bearing preload adjustment was not possible before, even though it was widely known to achieve the best wheel performance as noted in SAE specification J2535 and re-affirmed in 2006 by the SAE Truck and Bus Wheel Subcommittee.

Adoption of a new Electronic Systems Computer-Aided Design (ECAD) system for modeling electrical systems design by Product Engineering offers the promise of improved accuracy and productivity for Service Publication's authors to create wiring diagrams and to standardize their format; while improving the comprehension and functionality of those documents for service technicians. It is also potentially disruptive, requiring new workflows, processes, standards and lines of communication to be developed. This paper describes how to structure and organize a project for effectively and efficiently bringing a new ECAD system for modeling electrical system design into Service Publications. It also provides insight into some lessons learned.

Agriculture Tractors are widely used as prime mover either to pull or drive the “Implements” in the farms, apart from custom made equipments like Transplanter, Manure Spreader, Combine Harvester, Cotton Picker, mobile irrigation etc. which are used for particular operations in large production capacities. For larger landholdings, timely completion of the operation within the window period is the major decisive factor that drives agriculture tractor design. For small farms like in India, the productivity requirement was offset by the versatility of the equipment. Also, the farming practice varies in India due to geographical conditions such as soil types and demographic conditions such as crops types. Hence, the mechanisation level of matured market was not yet achieved in India, though the technologies are available for implementation.

Emission, fuel economy and productivity in non-road mobile machinery (NRMM) depend largely on drive cycles. Understanding drive cycles can provide the in-depth information and knowledge that help the system integrator better optimize the vehicle management system. Some non-road engine test cycles already exist nowadays. However, these cycles are mainly for engine emission regulation purpose, and not closely tied to real world applications. Therefore, from both industries and academia, it has been the common practice to instrument and retrofit a vehicle, assign a professional driver operate the retrofitted vehicle for real testing, and compare the results to the baseline vehicle under the similar operating conditions. Obviously this approach is time consuming and resource intensive. In this paper, we attempt to address this issue by introducing a method of constructing standard drive cycles from in-field operation data.

Developing relatively cheap and widely available resources for heterogeneous solid catalyst synthesis is a promising approach for biodiesel fuel industry. Seashell which is essentially calcium carbonate can be used as a basic support for transesterification heterogeneous catalysts. In the present investigation, the alcoholysis of waste frying oil has been carried out using seashell-supported K₃PO₄ as solid catalyst. The rationale for this derives from the fact that waste frying oil contains both long-chain free fatty acids (FFA) and triglycerides (TG) which are catalyzed on acid and basic sites respectively. Thus, the K₃PO₄/seashell catalyst may serve the dual role of promoting both esterification and transesterification reactions. The catalyst was synthesized following a dipping impregnation of pre-crushed and calcined seashell in an aqueous solution of K₃PO₄. Samples with different percentage loadings of K₃PO₄ (5 to 25 wt%) were prepared.

Powertrain Systems development is entering a period of unprecedented challenge driven by the convergence of many factors: increasing government regulations for both tailpipe emissions and fuel economy, increased competition, reduced workforce, and tighter program budgets. This has resulted in timing compression and resource reduction that stress a typical Design-Build-Test development practice. The application of telematics and information technology to engineering development can provide the efficiency gains required for engineers to deliver a robust powertrain system in a timely manner. By automating the evaluation of a system's robustness, engineers can focus their time on problem areas during their normal development process and launch with quality. This paper will detail how this methodology was jointly applied by Control-Tec and Navistar to identify and improve system performance before production.

Rapid control prototyping (RCP) is a widely used technique for verifying a controller's functional behavior. Typically, RCP uses a target processor with ample processing power and memory, which makes the technique attractive for engineers exploring new concepts. However, a large gap often exists between the RCP target and the production ECU in terms of the available code generation technology, the supporting tool chain, and I/O hardware. Consequently, significant work is required when migrating a controller from RCP to production. Furthermore, due to cost constraints, RCP systems are difficult to deploy in large numbers for fleet testing or preproduction trials. In response to the challenges associated with RCP, automotive engineers are moving towards a technique called on-target rapid prototyping (OTRP).

In these years, requirements for application of electronic control to trucks, buses and agricultural vehicles are becoming stronger. This paper discusses current status of electronic products applicable to them in each of the following three control categories - Powertrain control, Vehicle control, and Body control. At present, production amount of these products is not large but production of them is expected to increase to more than dozen of current production within several years.

There is a clear trend for major truck manufacturers to expand outside their traditional “home markets,” and it appears almost inevitable that a global truck industry will eventually become a reality. It is therefore of interest to speculate whether such global manufacturers will be able to serve world markets with a single product line, i.e., a world truck. This paper examines the factors that have brought about variations in the form and function of trucks (3.5 tons and up) in different regions of the world, as well as the trends toward convergence (or lack thereof) of these design variations that are now taking place. The factors that appear to have influenced variation and which are considered here include: historical development, source of vehicles (manufacturing base), regulations, geography, technology, and special market factors.

Producing a commercial vehicle in a single location to satisfy the needs of multiple applications in a world market, cannot be realistically accomplished. Instead, Mercedes-Benz and its subsidiary, Freightliner Corporation, have adopted a strategy, characterized as multi-domestic rather than multinational, which relies on production of trucks in many locations. In this way, qualities can be offered which are in unique demand in those markets while minimizing the development effort and capitalizing on worldwide component sourcing. Presently Mercedes-Benz, including Freightliner, operates 54 truck manufacturing and assembly plants throughout the world. As a part of, and following this strategy, Freightliner has recently launched an all new medium-duty truck program for the U.S. market, produced in an all new manufacturing plant in Cleveland, North Carolina. The present paper describes this program and its development. Refer to Fig. 1.

Presenting a brand new approach to heat exchangers for engines, transmissions, hydraulic systems, etc. This new heat exchanger is made of only two pieces of circular extruded aluminum profiles: Core and shell. No soldering: The core and the shell is assembled by a minimum of automated work. In an oil to water cooling application, the active surface on the oil side of the core is enlarged by fins 0.2 mm thick, 0.3 mm spacing, and 3 mm high. The fins are made in unique production machines and enlarge the active surface area approximately five times compared to a conventional heat exchanger of the same dimensions. The principle utilizes the low pressure drop at laminar flow and avoids the disadvantage of low heat transfer after a certain laminar flow length. The result is approximately three times higher oil heat dissipation, combined with very low oil pressure drop, compared to conventional technique.

A new line of automatic electronically controlled transmissions has been undergoing development by Allison Transmission Division. The first of three models in the family has been introduced into production in September, 1991. Extensive efforts in assuring the reliability of the product and in meeting customer needs have resulted in several product modifications over the initially concepted product. Exhaustive efforts in integrating the design and the factory are resulting in major returns on producibility and quality from the production floor reflecting the total ground up approach to design and manufacturing the new World Transmission Family of heavy duty automatic transmissions.

The evolution and explanation of an approach to achieving a stated set of very low emissions limits was described in a previous paper (1)*. The method outlined was to use stoichiometric mixture preparation with EGR dilution in order to employ a 3-way catalyst for low emissions, whilst giving an engine power output competitive with a turbocharged diesel engine. This approach has been followed in an engine development programme, which has resulted in a responsive and driveable engine being produced. The engine has demonstrated the achievability of very low emissions over the US heavy duty diesel transient test (FTP) cycle as follows: The lean-burn approach to low emission heavy duty operation has also been considered, using steady-state engine test results. The NOx-HC trade-off has been identified as a key indicator of engines' potential, and is also considered to give an indication of the accuracy of air-fuel ratio control required to achieve proposed emissions standards.

In January 1989, the California Energy Commission called on engine and coach manufacturers to identify the concerns and obstacles to be overcome in order to develop a School Bus Demonstration Program using alternative fuels. Working closely with Detroit Diesel Corporation, Crown Coach undertook the development to apply DDC's methanol-fueled 6V-92TA engine in the Crown transit style heavy-duty school bus. Safety was the prime consideration in designing a vehicle that not only exceeded FMVSS-301 Fuel System Integrity requirements and State specifications, but also met the anticipated needs of the operating school districts and potential concerns of parents.

The proposed wire mesh particulate trap employs a radical design for controlling the regeneration process. A prototype for a 6.2 L diesel engine was designed, built and tested to demonstrate performance characteristics and to correlate with an analytical evaluation. Presented in this paper is the first round of test data achieved thus far. Regeneration is initiated by an electric heating element embedded in the wire mesh, and a single butterfly valve controls the division of flow between the wire mesh and bypass channels. The trap design relies on oxygen in the exhaust gases for regeneration and employs a closed-loop control logic to limit the maximum temperature during regeneration. Test results indicate an ability to achieve high collection efficiencies at low pressure drops and a controlled regeneration process. Work continues to explore the regeneration characteristics under variable engine operating conditions.

Automatic guidance of farm tractors would improve productivity of many field operations by reducing operator fatigue and by improving machine performance. A self-tuning steering controller, which can be used for noncontact positioning systems, was designed for tractor guidance. A simple two degrees-of-freedom model was chosen with which to develop a prediction model used in recursive least-squares parameter estimation. A variable forgetting factor was implemented and its algorithm modified to cope with time-varying nonlinear systems. The self-tuning steering controller based upon minimum variance control was tested and verified with a tractor dynamic simulator. Circular, lane change, and sinusoidal paths were used. A model tractor was also used to verify controller performance for staight-line and sinusoidal paths.

Tillage is an importantcomponent of crop production system and may be defined as any mechanical manipulation of soil to improve its appearance and physical condition for crop production. The factors affecting the energy requirement by a tillage tools include initial soil conditions, tool shape, and manner of tool movement in the soil and the desired final soil conditions. Soil bin facilities have generally been used to evaluate soil forces and compare energy required by tillage tools. Commonly used cultivator sweeps in the Canadian Prairies were tested in the soil bin to evaluate their suitability on energy demand. The draft of the sweeps was found to be a function of the depth and speed of operation. Tool shape plays an important role in the energy demand. The smooth sweep with low soil lifting characteristics was found to be the most suitable under these test conditions.

A machine vision system was developed to identify and locate harvestable spears of asparagus. An image acquisition vehicle was fabricated to videotape portions of asparagus rows from a commercial production field. Images were acquired using a monochrome CCD camera. The detection of reflectance properties of asparagus was enhanced by using optical bandpass filters for near-infrared radiation. Videotaped segments acquired in the field were analyzed. Image processing techniques based on geometrical characteristics of asparagus spears were used to identify and locate harvestable spears in the images. Harvestable spears measured in the field were compared to those found by machine vision. The vision system correctly identified from 86 to 97% of the harvestable spears in six 15 m row segments analyzed. The uncertainty in the location of spears was within a 2.97 by 5.39 cm window with 95% confidence.

Abstract The transportation industry is currently in a transition toward the use of zero-emission vehicles; however, reaching it will take a considerable amount of time. In the meantime, a diesel powertrain will remain the workhorse for most heavy-duty transportation. In order to reduce the engine’s environmental impact, biofuels, such as biodiesel, are used as drop-in fuels or fuel blends. The use of drop-in fuels may create challenges for the fuel system since sticky deposits can precipitate and cause injector malfunctioning or premature fuel filter plugging. It has been concluded in the past that these deposits have been caused by soft particles. In this article, soft particles created through the degradation of biodiesel and their effect on filters are studied. The article aims to analyze fuel filters and investigate the materials responsible for soft particle separation. The study includes three pre filters and three main filters that are commercially available truck filters.

Abstract To protect ship equipment of river and sea transport, it is suggested to use polymeric protective coatings based on epoxy diane oligomer ED-20, polyethylene polyamine (PEPA) curing agent and filler, which is a departure from industrial production. Thus the purpose of the work is analysis of major dependency of the properties on the content of fillers that allowed to revealed the critical filler content (furnace black) in composites to form a protective coating with the required set of characteristics. The infrared (IR) spectral analysis was used to investigate the presence of bonds on the surface of particles of the PM-75 furnace black, which allows us to assess the degree of cross-linking of the polymer. The influence of the content of dispersed furnace black on the physicomechanical and thermophysical properties and the structure of the protective coating is investigated.