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Smoothing the Traffic Flow
• nVER the Easter weekend the Automobile Association • -" was in co-operation with police throughout the country, and conducted the most intensive drive ever launched to beat delays caused by road congestion. The emphasis was on anticipating traffic blocks and endeavouring to overcome them before they had time to develop. Every A.A. patrol had been instructed to radio or telephone to area offices in such circumstances, and the reports were passed immediately to the police.
Key links were the A.A. radio network, covering 47,000 square miles, and the Association's spotter aircraft, with a three-fold duty as advance traffic warning posts, finders of alternative routes away from trouble spots, and in surveying the most important holiday routes in the South. Thirty alternative routes to popular holiday centres were also signposted.
Adaptable Trailer Design
THE latest series of American Fruehauf semi-trailers is considerably more adaptable than most others being produced anywhere, because not only does it have the normal semi-trailer advantages but the running gear can easily be moved along the frame to suit varying loadings or American State legal regulations.
All the Fruehauf running gears are available with either leaf-spring or air suspension, and are attached to the trailers through specially strengthened side rails. They are built complete with electrical components and even mud flaps, thus the position of a complete running gear can be altered relatively to the trailer coupling in a matter
B28 of minutes, it even being possible for the driver to stop on the road and change the position of the wheels without assistance.
The air-suspension system offered with Fruehauf running gears makes use of special trailing arms which consist of forged spring-steel leaves, and these arms provide axle alignment and braking-torque absorption, thereby eliminating the need for radius rods, torque arms, Panhard rods and anti-roll bars. Firestone air bellows are employed, as used on Greyhound' buses, and detail refinements include the use of sintered-metal filters to protect the levelling valves during inflation and deflation.
Talking to Holger Ridder, Detroit editor of Fleet Owner, Mr. W. E. Grace, the president of the company, said that a Fruehauf aluminium trailer on 11-22.5 in. tubeless tyres weighed 3 tons 7 cwt. compared with the 5 tons 17 cwt. of an equivalent conventional all-steel trailer, and that because of their new design, a Fruehauf all-steel trailer of the same capacity weighed only 4 tons 14 cwt.
Russia Claims New Fibre
A NEW nylon-type artificial fibre has been made in 1-1 Russia, and is called Kapron. The process calls for the use of benzole to replace phenylic acid, which is in short supply, but the benzole can be obtained in almost unlimited quantities. It is claimed that previous attempts had not been satisfactory, but a new catalyser had been found which facilitates the reaction, this taking place at a lower pressure and temperature, and providing a pure polymeride without harmful admixtures.
Lighter Wheels by Welding
WELDED wheels constitute a considerable part of the " production of an old-established manufacturer, Steel Stampings, Ltd., Cookley, near Kidderminster and the newest welding methods have resulted in lighter wheels and savings in material.
Many road wheels consist of a broad rim to which a centre disc is joined and, in the past, riveting was considered to be the best method to make this join, but it required considerable overlapping of the two parts, whilst rivet heads projected from the inner surface of the rim. Now these parts are butted together in a number of Fusarc installations supplied by Quasi-Arc, Ltd., Bilston. Each consists of a self-propelled, automatic welding machine mounted on grooved wheels running on a track. Next to the track is a 5-cwt. tilting turntable manipulator on which the tacked rim and disc assemblies are mounted so that welding can be carried out horizontally, but the track allows for longitudinal welding, if required.
There are five of these outfits using Firmee continuous electrodes taking 600 amp. A sixth, however, embodies a Eusarc CO, welding head, which gives higher speeds, deeper penetration and better quality. In fact, welding time can be cut by a third, and deslagging is much easier. Manual welding, using equipment from the same maker, is also applied to the manufacture of brake shoes and in many other production fields.
Testing consumption Electr9nieally
AN interesting type of test equipment for fuel consumption has been installed in a number of Leyland factories to facilitate research in this field. Previously, it was difficult accurately to measure the increased or decreased efficiency of fuel systems after minor modifications. Now this can be ascertained within an accuracy of One per cent. Not only does it achieve such accuracy on the test bed, but it reduces the number of personnel required, releasing them for other, and equally valuable, research work.
Developed by Farnell Instruments, Ltd., the equipment is controlled electronically. It embodies a burette with two level marks and a series of photo-electric cells. As fuel reaches the first level when starting a test, a photocell brings into circuit a time-interval meter and a revolution counter. These operate until the fuel level reaches the second mark, when another photocell automatically ends the test.
While in use the tester allows incoming fuel to fill the burette and to feed the engine at all times, thus avoiding unnecessary stops. To achieve this an electrically operated valve in the fuel input closes, but the test takes place before the fuel has completely run out and the photocell has opened the supply line, thus preventing any, break in the fuel needed by the engine. With the present model each consumption test averages less than a minute.