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Towards automatic

5th April 1968, Page 40
5th April 1968
Page 40
Page 41
Page 40, 5th April 1968 — Towards automatic
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

fault

finding

by Tony Wilding

• Complex equipment including automatic fault-finding units, automatic-transmission systems, cab air-conditioning and better lighting are some of the applications that are likely in the future to put a greater demand on the electrical system of the commercial vehicle. So said Mr. J. A. Cook, director, contract sales, CAV Ltd. when his company held its annual agents' (and users') conference at Harrogate on Tuesday.

As usual, papers were presented by senior executives of the , firm and this time there were two, both dealing with factors influencing the design of electrical systems for diesel vehicles. Mr. Cook concentrated on user needs, design specification and product development, while Mr. G. FitzGerald (manager, technical service) covered equipment application practice.

Mr. Cook used four broad headings for his paper—economic, technical, experience and commercial factors. Only when these were considered together, he said, could the optimum electrical system be designed and the component parts specified: each had a considerable effect on future system design. He forecast increasing pressure to reduce vehicle weight through the Transport Bill and future legislation that would bring a need for 250 bhp engines—pointing to turbocharging and/or high-speed diesels. In the long term, the author said, we might see the introduction of gas-turbine-powered commercial vehicles and all this would accentuate the need for higher-duty electrical systems.

Technical requirements called for improved reliability which meant investigation of the ideal mounting and location of components. Mr. Cook said that zinc-air batteries could influence component design, that transistors and diodes would be increasingly used, as would printed and flexible circuits.

While economic and technical factors were important influences on design, Mr. Cook maintained that experience must not be ignored and information from proving tests, seivice returns and so on had a big effect on component design. And while an easy solution to the problems would be to over-design, the resulting product could be too large, too heavy and too expensive. Commercial pressures made this solution unacceptable and Mr. Cook felt that it was his company's job to see that pressures were applied sensibly and that reliability did not suffer.

Mr. FitzGerald went over some of the ground already covered in the first paper. He dealt more fully with technical requirements in electrical systems and methods of checking reliability. An important point made was that an electrical installation needed to be regarded as a complete entity —not as a collection of parts performing local functions. An example given to illustrate the point was the starter/battery combination where wiring and power source both had to be taken into consideration when the motor was designed.

Examples were also given of electrical failures where the primary cause was remote from the apparent seat of the trouble. One thing was quite certain, said the author, that if a certain piece of equipment had to be replaced many times the diagnosis was either wrong or incomplete; another fault somewhere else in the system was contributing to the failure.

Hints that CAV will be offering an additional range of higher-quality starters and dynamos before the end of this year were given by speakers at a question and answer session.

Answering delegates from p.s.v. undertakings, Mr. H. Astbury, chief sales director of CAV, said that the company had been led astray by economic pressures to meet manufacturers wanting low-cost components. This policy had now been reversed, he said and CAV was now only interested in making high-quality units. Mr. Astbury stressed that ranges offered from now on would get better and better to give the utmost reliability.


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