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Commercials sweep the design board
Page 55
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FOUR of this year's five Design Council awards for the British Motor Vehicle Industry have gone to the commercial vehicle sector.
Boalloy Ltd of Radnor Park Estate, Congleton, Cheshire, is recognised for its Tautliner Curtain Sided Trailer of which there are 50 variations.
The Tautliner is both safe and easy to operate, and according to the Design Council a 12-metre outfit can be opened, discharged, loaded with 22 international pallets and closed-up inside 25 minutes.
The safety aspect of the Tautliner is twofold in that the operator is not required to climb over the load to rope and secure it. In service it has been shown to withstand extreme tensions with shifting loads because the curtain is free to ride up the tensioning straps.
On test by a major brewery an articulated tautliner was braked and turned at 60mph without losing its unroped 20 tonne load of loose cannisters, crates and cans.
Girling Ltd, of Tyseley, Birmingham, received its award for its Twinstop heavy-duty truck brake. The brake is designed for air or hydraulic actuation and can be used on vehicles with axle loads from six to 13 tonnes.
The major innovation in the design is a pair of fully independent expander adjustor mechanisms. This enables dualcircuit braking to be used in which each one of the two air actuators on each brake is connected to separate circuits controlled by the dual foot-valve.
Designed to satisfy foreseeable heavy-duty braking needs throughout the 1980s, the Twinstop received the commendation of the Design Council panel which considered that it demonstrated an approach to brake design which will meet many of the possible requirements for brakes employed in anti-wheel lock systems. It is currently being fitted to the Ford Transcontinental. It may soon become a feature of the '75 award winning Bedford TM.
The Ultrabrite Tipper body of Neville Industries (Mansfield) Ltd, of Bradder Street, Mansfield, Notts, is another Design Council award winner. It is described as an aluminium "shopping basket" fixed between "goal posts." It is claimed to last five times longer than a similar steel body. In its construction the traditional areas of fatigue between longitudinal and transverse joints are eliminated.
The body was introduced in late 1971 and the panel says that it has been long enough in service to assess its projected life which is put at at least five years with a minimum of maintenance against 12 months for a steel body on the same operation.
Taskers Trailers Ltd of Andover, Hants, received its award for its low-loading Task lift F6-32 and F6-32LB. Designed for single manhandling, the Tasker low-loading trailer disconnects from its swan-neck and is lowered hydraulically to the ground. For front-end loading the hydraulic rams are pressurised from either a power take off from the tractor gearbox or from an independent power pack mounted on the swan-neck. It is claimed that the refinements and ease of operation of the F6 series puts it in a class apart from its nearest competitors. The winners' designs will be on show at The Design Centre in London and Glasgow from May 25 to June 19.