National research to fight fatigue
Page 17
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CONCERN about wheel loss and fatigue failures has prompted the Institute of Road Transport Engineers to ask for a national research programme to provide a complete understanding of the problem. Both the Department of Transport and the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders have declined to fund the research.
Consequently the IRTE is going to launch a research fund, appealing direct to operators and manufacturers in the commercial vehicle industry.
As a prelude to the funding campaign, the IRTE has published a booklet called The Lost Wheels Mystery, a review of wheel-security failures that in the past year have formed a series of articles in the Institute's monthly journal Transport Engineer.
The booklet costing Et from the IRTE at 1 Cromwell Place, London SW7, reveals that the replacement rate of wheel studs is about four per cent and, wheels, about three per cent.
Because of the potential hazard presented by any wheel loss the IRTE wants to make wheel-fixing failures impossible, except as a result of gross negligence.