ERF casts aside its Meccano set for good
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SF's engineering research and 3sign centre at Middlewich was fficially opened on July 11 this 3ar by Transport Minister NorIan Fowler.
At the opening ceremony, ERF lairman and managing director ater Foden said that an up-tote engineering centre was of )ramount importance to any )mpany hoping to compete Jccessfully in the motor indus in the next decade.
The centre is intended to make ire that the company's cornercial vehicles {which curntly account for about 15 per !nt of the heavy end of the UK arket) conform to environmen1 regulations concerning noise, ifety and exhaust emissions as ell as providing maximum fuel :onomy.
The centre was built at a cost £1.5m and is adjacent to the IF parts centre at Middlewich, out five miles up the road om the main factory in Indbach. The reason for the ove is that the current factory so short of space that such a Ivelopment at the Sun Works auld be completely out of the iestion.
Covering 51/2 acres of a 17½re site, the research centre is irt of ERF's five-year proamme to extend its range of ,avy goods vehicles and to Det future market and environ3ntal requirements. The site mprises a workshop, canteen
d a single storey office block, augh provision was made at a planning stage for a further o storeys to be added at a er date if necessary.
The whole site was also )nned to allow for a 75 per nt expansion in the future to :lude a small (375m or 410 rds) test track.
The vehicle development )rkshop incorporates six hide work bays and a chassis namometer to provide simued road test conditions. The jgest financial outlay for any
e piece of equipment was in :t for this dynamometer which -I cope with anything likely in ure legislation by way of )SS weight and power require
the development engineers can carry out cooling tests in one day, for example, compared with the three days necessary if the work was done at MIRA.
Although ERF does not undertake any bench component testing, a great deal of work is done on their installation requirements. Such features as power steering pump and alternator drives, sump profiles, fan diameter and height all come into this category.
The cab development workshop has also been moved from Sandbach to Middlewich.
This has a floor area of 1,700sqm (18,200sqft) with a staff of 35.
This cab section includes woodworking and cab building areas and also one for assembling prototypes. The cab design section builds the prototype models and supplies the necessary information to enable prototype and production tooling to be made. The research section gets involved in production development only when it comes to the smc (sheet moulded compound) which ERF uses for the cab panels. So the development of the panels is engineering whereas the development of their fitting is production.
Any new materials which look useful are picked up and investigated by the cab section to the extent that ERF now needs a materials engineer (50 per cent engineer and 50 per cent materials scientist), but the current economic climate prohibits any move in this direction, In March 1978 ERF bought a Hewlett Packard desk-top computer and this is now installed at Middlewich. So far this has been used for braking calculations, chassis frame bending moment diagrams, and for calculating theoretical vehicle performance.
Currently, the programmes are stored in small tape cassettes but this has not proved completely satisfactory as the tapes have a relatively limited life due to the wear rate encountered as the tape is "searched" by the computer. • ERF intends to go over to disc storage in the future which will allow all the programmes to be stored on one disc and will eliminate the wear problem as there is no physical contact with the disc during the reading process. The computer also incorpc rates a print-out unit and grap plotter as shown in the photc This is especially useful for illu trating the theoretical perforn ance of a vehicle, as it can pn vide a cascade curve c gradeability against road speE in each gear or a sawtooth di gram of engine speed again road speed, again for each gea The vehicle performance tap is programmed with all if variables likely to be considerE for an ERF driveline — engin( of various makes and rating make of gearbox and number ratios, gross vehicle weight, ar so on. The computer operati merely punches in the pr gramme number for the partic lar units selected and the cor puter does the rest.
As well as selecting a numb of "logical" specifications for ti computer, I also picked -an ir possible one just to see how bi the theoretical performan, would be, choosing a Rolls 22 David Brown six-speed box (i significance at all in the choice manufacturer!) and the highE possible ratio for the Kirkst axle to run at 40 tonnes grol The resultant cascade cur from the print-out showed th this wasn't a vehicle I woi. fancy driving!
This purely academic exerci proved just how effective a co puter can be in choosing a w( matched driveline. It can't anything that one of the E draughtsmen couldn't do, bu. does it very much quicker.
From punching-in the vehi data to getting a print-out of 1 performance curves took ab( 30 seconds!
The computer can also used to control test rigs or au matically collect data from ma toring equipment, and there , certain routine drawing appli tions where the computer's r thematical ability can help • designer by plotting the mo ments of mechanisms, Ii spring geometry and steer linkage design.
The computer certaii doesn't do everything, howe% and ERF is the first to admit t it could not replace the sp( and flexibility of a draughtsrr when it comes to original sign. Yet the computer certai does remove a lot of draw office drudgery.
It's hoped by all at ERF that economic climate will impr, and allow the company to pr on with further additions to equipment at Middlewich cluding extensions to the cc puter facilities. As one ERF r said "the days of calling ER Meccano company are over