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Some subjects at the European Transport Maintenance Council conference were

far out, but these manufacturers-to-users meetings can help bridge the gap between operators and suppliers

ON ONE DAY of last week's European Transport Maintenance Council conference in Barcelona the subjects discussed ranged from future satellite communications for commercial vehicles to forklift truck maintenance.

Some delegates thought that the organisers would have been better advised to narrow the range of conference topics, set up separate "workshops" for the discussion of individual topics or at least compress the event into fewer than three days.

Despite their criticisms, few of the 533 delegates would seriously disagree with the view expressed by Roger Kempson of Eaton, an ETMC director, that the second annual ETMC conference was "generally satisfactory".

In his remarks at the conference opening, ETMC European chairman Roger Denniss, Bass UK's distribution director, referred to the first ETMC conference at Brussels last year. "Bridging the gap was our theme then," he said. "One cannot claim that ETMC has yet bridged the gap between manufacturers and users, but it has exposed a wonderful opportunity for them to work together as a team.

"Our theme this year is 'Win with teamwork'." He gave examples of what this cooperation could achieve and referred to the Brewery Transport Advisory Committee work with SAF to improve the lateral stability of semi-trailers, and his own company's current work with Cummins and Bedford aimed at improving fuel consumption.

Twenty papers were presented, mostly from vehicle and component manufacturers but including contributions from some American, British and Spanish operators.

Time was set aside for userto-manufacturer questions and while a small number of these had all the hallmarks of having been "planted" by manufacturers, many more addressed the heart of some current vehicle maintenance problems.

This report concentrates on the ETMC delegates' questions, and a few of the most signifi cant papers. Some individual papers will be described more fully in future issues of CM.

Eric Mark, head of division of the EEC Commission's directorate-general for transport, presented the conference's first paper. In only 20 minutes he outlined how the EEC's objectives will affect vehicle specifications and maintenance. The two main objectives," he said, are "liberalisation and harmonisation."

"The basic aim of the EEC is to create a common market," said Mr Mark. "Anything which hinders free movement of goods should be removed."

Mr Mark used type approval of goods vehicles as an example of how EEC road transport legislation has a "direct impact on your business." Its basic objective is to reduce technical barriers to trade while aiming to improve road safety, he said. "Manufacturers have been faster to implement type approval requirements than governments, particularly Italy," said Mr Mark.

He described the "optional harmonisation" system under which "governments could choose to apply the EEC standard to a vehicle subject to type approval; its own national standard as an alternative; or no standard at all.

Mr Mark accepted that there has been little progress on harmonisation of weights and dimensions of goods vehicles over the past 15 years, but thought the last Council meet ing in May had made significant progress.

The subjects he listed under the heading of "construction features that the Commission was looking at concerning road safety" would have surprised few British fleet engineers. They included side guards, antispray equipment, anti-lock braking and maximum speed governors.

Mr Mark considered the piecemeal introduction of these measures in different European countries to be a retrogade step. Clearly he touched a nerve among some British fleet engineers with the mention of some of these legislative measures.

The lively questioning which followed was dominated by British delegates, with some contribution from West German operators. Jim Smith of Bass UK wanted to know if Mr Mark agreed that fleet engineers were "political footballs. You may think there is harmony on spray suppression, sideguards and so on but I can assure you there is not. Is it not about time that responsible bodies like the RHA, ETA, IRTE and ETMC played a bigger part than politicians in the introduction of these laws?"

In response, Eric Mark, urged vehicle users to seek representation at Brussels to balance that from vehicle and component manufacturers. And he agreed with Andrew Davis of Whitbread who, having noticed a bald tyre on a Spanish coach on his way from the airport, pointed out that "regulations mean nothing unless enforcement is rigid."

Sam Dunnico of Tilcon and Stan Thomas of Allied Breweries pursued the topical subject of spray-suppression legislation. Mr Dunnico referred to the. controversial ETA film and questioned the police's ability to understand all the regulations. Mr Thomas wondered why he had to pay "exorbitant prices for hairy polo mints or pieces of plastic grass."

Stan Thomas also had some thing to say on the subject of road damage by commercial vehicles. "If I go skating on ice and go through, they say the ice is too thin, they don't weigh me," he commented.

Eric Mark understandably was reluctant to become involved in a debate on the technicalities of spray suppres sion but he suggested that "10 years from now no one will worry about spray".

He said that the EEC's cost!benefit analyses on road damage usually showed it to be "cheaper and easier for the transport industry to reduce it than the road builders."

Manfred Walter from the West German road haulage association, BDF (Bundesverband des Deutschen Guterfernverkehrs) called for a "uniform set of regulations from Brussels, as soon as possible."

There was nothing we would like better said Eric Mark, but "we have to listen to conflicting advice, such as on spray suppression, and that leads to compromise."

Those delegates favouring more technical papers found the second day more satisfying. In a session chaired by John Ficker, Delco Remy's engineering manager, Europe, under the general heading of "Towards Tomorrow's Truck," three speakers gave particularly interesting papers.

Tony Dowries, director of engineering at Perkins, described the changes in engine design which we can expect for the Perkins range of four to 12-litre diesels over the next 10 years.

"The principal challenges for an engine manufacturer lie in the areas of mechanical load ing, thermal loading, and combustion process," he said, and described Perkins "dual approach to most design problems."

He emphasised his company's use of laser doppler anemometry to study the combustion process and to its activity in the area of piston design for noise reduction. "The focal points for the future diesel engine will be families of engines with a minimum variety of components; electronic control systems; new materials (including ceramics and the replacement of steel gears with plastic ones); and combustion developments."

In reply to a question from Roger Denniss about closed loop machine management, Tony Downes explained that the objective is to make the diesel engine of the future "run optimally all the time, using data for electronic control from many sources on the vehicle, including load sensing, and the transmission."

The other main advantages of electronic control were identified as "increased tolerance to degraded and alternative fuels; superior fuel consumption; improved control of emissions; and a diagnostic and monitoring capability."

Sam Dunnico, more concerned about current Perkins engines, asked what is being done about the "poor availability and prohibitive prices of parts. They make unit replacement more economical than overhaul."

Mr Downes would not be drawn into a discussion about specific parts availability problems, but said that the future families of engines to which he had already referred would improve parts availability and prices.

Two fascinating views of the future from different standpoints which dovetailed together nicety came from Dion van Ravel, Daf's service manager from Eindhoven, and Malcolm Filsell, a well-known UK operating engineer, who is currently head of road transport policy and planning at the Post Office.

The irony of a technical hitch on the sophisticated video projector used by Dion van Bevel supplied by the Palacio de and Congresos was not missed by many delegates but in the end detracted hardly at all from the slickness of the presentation.

The thrust of the Daf paper was that modern microelectronic technology and the rate at which it is developing enables vehicle manufacturers to offer operators an almost limitless range of on-board equipment.

Daf wants feedback from operators to help it decide which of the systems will be most useful.

In Daf's video film, Chriet Titulaer who may be described as the William Woollard of Dutch television, guided his viewers into a tomorrow's world of on-board equipment which included a reversing aid which, with a changing tone warns the driver how close he is to an obstacle; and a satellite which will enable Daf drivers to communicate directly from their cabs with the ITS (International Truck Service) centre in Eindhoven.

In a carefully researched paper, Malcom Filsell gave a detailed description of what he as an operator, expects to see in the way of on-board micro electronic and micro-computer systems in the next 10 years.

"Above anything else the user must demand and expect absolute system integrity and I believe this is now possible," he said.

He separated the next decade's advances in on board equipment into three phases: 1, High technology, signals to drive conventional instruments (multiplexing, etc): 2, On board diagnostic pro gramme, typically oil temperatures and contami nation; coolant temperature and rate of temperature rise; brake wear; tyre pressures; and improved fuel consumption.

3, Operations mode, typically on-board communications and automatic operational monitoring and control; on-board microprocessor/tape for input to remote processor; and routeing, route guidance, and so on.

In an interesting breakdown of maintenance costs, Mr Filsell showed where he thought the greatest potential for component condition monitoring systems lay.

A paper by Jim Lewis of United Parcel Service, an American parcel delivery company with an enormous fleet, described UPS's development of a stratified charge multi-fuel engine based on the General Motors 292 six-cylinder petrol engine.

Eaton's development of its AMT (automated mechanical transmission) was expertly described by Mick Dunkley, chief engineer, forward products of Eaton Truck Components.

At question time, Mr Dunkley defended the use of a conventional clutch, microprocessor controlled, for the AMT, in place of a torque convertor on the ground mainly of better mechanical efficiency and lower costs.

"Despite what the Volvo speaker said earlier on" (he had talked about initial cost being relatively unimportant) "manufacturers tell us as component suppliers that price is very important," said Mr Dunkley.

The question of the relationship between component suppliers and vehicle manufacturers was taken further in the conference's final question and answer session. Sam Dunnico was not happy with some vehicle manufacturers who, having asked the operator to specify which components he wants, then "allows the component suppliers to take over. Then we have to argue with equipment suppliers."

Rob Aitchison of Rockwell defended "direct contact" between component suppliers and operators. "Rockwell welcomes direct contact, that is why we are here at ETMC," he said. "Usually vehicle manufacturers offer only a restricted range of options, for example in axle ratios.

"By direct contact we can keep the operator informed of our development work and extend those options. It also establishes a useful feedback to component manufacturers from operators."

' Another question from Sam Dunnico, concerned non-as bestos brake linings. He did not name the vehicle manufacturer concerned, but it became clear that it was Foden. "We feel we are guinea pigs with these linings," he said. "We are having real problems. They are disintegrating and rolling road brake tests are showing widely scattered efficiencies."

Roger Kempson of Eaton r-oplied to this question since his company supplies the brake assemblies concerned. Three suppliers are involved, he said — the US manufacturer of the linings which supplies Eaton, which in turn supplies the brake assemblies to the vehicle manufacturer.

"All three companies are very concerned," he said, but he did not accept that all the braking problems described by Mr Dunnico were necessarily attributable to the linings. "I do not think it is necessarily the lining causing lack of efficiency," he said. Eaton has revised parts in its brake assemblies and is now reported to be monitoring the vehicles concerned on a weekly basis. Stan Thomas, speaking on behalf of BTAC (Brewery Transport Advisory Committee) had a long list of questions including requests for manufacturers' thoughts on alternative fuels and the possible supply from them of life warranties, to enable total life costs to be fixed, for major components such as cabs and engines.

BTAC also wanted to know if any manufacturer is developing a front-wheel-drive delivery vehicle, why hydraulic brakes are still being used instead of full air, and why so few discs; and why are there so many different torque settings for wheel nuts when presumably a largely common material is being used?

Not all his points were answered. Karlheinz a Campo of SAF put the manufacturers' position on wheel-fixing failures. "I cannot confirm that all manufacturers use the same material and sizes," he said. "Only legislation will cause conformity."

He highlighted the important role played by mechanics in ensuring that wheel nuts are tightened correctly and pointed out that several workshops do not have a torque wrench, he asked — rhetorically: "How many drivers carry torque wrenches?

"I and other manufacturers hear the message for more standardisation. We stand ready to play our part." However, he saw "no necessity to increase stud diameter for higher speed and payloads. The studs have been trouble-free in tough conditions."

Oaf's response to the call for life guarantees was to recommend manufacturer-run repair and maintenance contracts.

Why have hydraulic brakes not yet been completely replaced by air brakes? Jim Moseley, field service operations manager of Bedford, gave his company's point of view. "We believe 12 tonnes is the breakpoint for full air," he said. "Below that we will stay with hydraulics for the time being."

Bedford's major reason for this policy is that "full air brakes can be too responsive." The reason given for the slow adoption of disc brakes was this, "The problem of heat dissipation in discs and in the fluid has not been overcome."

Paul Spaeniers, who chaired the last session, conceded that a number of questions had been left unanswered. He suggested that they may be raised again at the next ETMC conference in Strasbourg from November 4-6, 1985, but he made it clear that operators are looking for a positive response from manufacturers to the subjects raised.