Te chnical
Page 45
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
and Industrial
Use Free-acceleration Test for Smoke'
IF a "free-acceleration" test employing
a smoke meter were instituted as a roadside check it would go some way towards providing objective evidence of excessive smoke emission in support of subjective assessments by visual methods, particularly in the worst cases; it would not overestimate the potential smoke emission of any vehicle. This is a conclusion reached by the Warren Spring Laboratory, a member of D.S.I.R., in its report for 1962.
The laboratory has investigated a simple smoke test of this type used in Belgium, the engine of the vehicle under test being accelerated with the vehicle stationary. Seventeen commercial vehicles were tested by the laboratory, acting in conjunction with the Ministry of Transport, to see whether any relationship existed between the smoke emitted in such a test and that which would be emitted by the same vehicle under load on the road. Road conditions were simulated by the use of M.I.R.A.'s roller dynamometer. It was found that the peak
Stability of Artics
THE Lateral Stability of a Simplified Articulated Vehicle" is one of 10 papers dealing with the control of vehicles, especially during braking and cornering, which will be discussed at a symposium on June 11. Organized by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (Automobile Division) in collaboration with the Road Research Laboratory, the conference will be opened at 10.30 a.m. by Lord Chesham.
Recent work done by Road Research Laboratory staff will be reported at the symposium, which is at the 1.Mech.E. headquarters at 1 Birdcage Walk, London. S.W.1; registration forms are obtainable from the Conference Section at this address.
French Artic Bus 'THE French manufacturing company, I Automobiles M. Berliet, is building a 180-passenger articulated bus which will be the first vehicle of this type to have been made in France. The design has an overall length of 18 metres (59.5 ft.) and its turning circle is 23 metres (75 ft.).
Fork Truck Winners TN the Fork Truck Driver of the Year I contest held in conjunction with the International Conference of the Institute of Materials Handling in Brighton, two Bedfordshire drivers with Conveyancer trucks took first and second places in Class 1. They were Mr. M. Elkington and Mr. A. Watson, both of whom are employed by AC-Delco Ltd. at Dunstable. level of smoke emitted during a freeacceleration test was nearly always lower than that emitted under load; at smoke levels which could be considered objectionable it was always lower. Of 20 cases where excessivesmoke was emitted in tests under load, the freeacceleration test indicated only eight vehicles as offenders but the report suggests that the proportion would probably be higher with really flagrant offenders.
The laboratory also made a survey of air pollution beside a busy main road in Hornsey in late summer, a time of year when pollution from domestic sources is at a minimum. Measurements were made near a set of traffic lights located midway up a hill. In these conditions, with a large flow of diesel-engined traffic climbing the hill under load, levels of pollution from smoke and sulphur dioxide, attributable almost entirely to the diesel traffic, were found to be comparable with those in a city in winter.
AFLEET of 50 of these Bedford TK 12-ton tractive units and 112 van semi-trailers is being built up by Vauxhall Motors Ltd. to act as a mobile conveyor line between the company's new "feeder" plant at Ellesmere Port in Cheshire and the production lines at the Luton and Dunstable factories. They will carry components and sub-assemblies from Ellesmere Port to the south and return with empty containers and processed components for sub-assemblies.
A staging post at Coventry enables tractive units based at Luton and Dunstable to complete two return journeys