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Chipping away at tradition

9th February 1980
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Page 71, 9th February 1980 — Chipping away at tradition
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Both the electronics incus-ry and manufacturers are convinced" at UK technology is not lacking; says Graham Montgomerie, but

operators will need a lot of convincing.

THE MARKET and the vehicle builder are both going to have to decide when they'll make use of what the electronics industry has to offer: this is the opinion of Lucas Electrical Ltd. The company is convinced that the technology is there — it is merely a matter of convincing the operator "not to be frightened of electronics''.

I have been talking to Bill Allarton and Clive Willcock of Lucas to find out the direction the components industry is taking for the Eighties. That is only one side of the story, of course, so to get the chassis manufacturers' opinion, I spoke to Roy Wild, engineering manager of Seddon Atkinson.

Both companies are evidently enthusiastic about the potential of the ubiquitous silicon chip. But equally, they are both certain that the operator will need a lot of convincing.

One thing that is quite certain — the manufacturing industry believe that the future of electronics in commercial vehicles is assured. This attitude was summed up by Lucas's Bill Allarton: "The growth of electronics in vehicles is going to mushroom — there is so much that electronics can do".

One of the possible future developments concerns the

wiring loom. In Germany, Japar and the USA, a time-shared rinc. main has been on test in variou: prototype vehicles for SOMf time. Lucas believes that thil system has a definite future a the premium end of the lam and bus market, a view share( by Seddon Atkinson's Roy Wild

The ring-main system corn prises three wires. The variou! function units, such as stoi lights, are connected into till circuit via a sender and ; receiver. A signal is sent rouni the ring main in such a form tha only the specific unit picks it ui with the switching operatiot taking place literally ii milliseconds.

There is a built-in safety fac tor as each sender unit has signal which is compatible onl with its own particular receive unit. The signal cannot b received (and thus cannot b acted on) by any other functior The "shared time" title of th ring main relates to the time c the actual switching operatior It is because the sender works s quickly that it is not possible fc a mere human being to beat th system.

The wiring loom is a ver labour-intensive component t produce and it is also vet heavy. At the present timr some chassis manufacturei have to cater for over 200 typE of harness. The alternative is 1 hold a number of "stock" loonr and then modify to suit the ii dividual application.

Although theoretically tiring main will save weight compared to a convention wiring loom, it is likely that a accent will be on the wait "theory". Although a loom cz weigh up to a hundredweigh the ring main, as far as a wiring is concerned, migl weigh only 20Ib; but with ti various sender and receiv

nits required in the systems it is nlikely that the net weight of )e lorry will vary very much.

The actual wiring will, of ourse,be easier to handle uring assembly because of the avious difference between a iree-wire ring main and a tulti-cable loom.

In Roy Wild's view, one of e major advantages will be the )se with which wiring variaons for different wheelbases in be accommodated. The ring am n would be so adaptable that could benefit from the :onomics of a high-volume run thout necessarily being tailorade for the individual chassis riant.

A major benefit to the operafrom electronics is likely to in improved information iout the condition of his hide: this is known as Vehicle indition Monitoring, VCM for ort. The system provides the Iver with information without n leaving the cab.

Lucas has developed sys-cis with digital readouts so the ver can check oil pressure, iter temperature, voltage and .e pressure — you name it, it -I be done.

These functions can be mitored now, of course, but sheer bulk of the number of itches required makes it her difficult. The size of the :rochip gets round this one. Lucas is presently pushing rd to gain customer accept:e of VCM and for its use as topping-stone to PID — Plug Diagnostics. This is the next p from VCM, where it is posle for the mechanic to plug o a socket on the vehicle ich can then monitor a tuber of functions and tell him )aintenance is required.

These results could be used )uild up an information bank future preventive mainte time, but it has not caught on to any great extent. Lucas believes that this could be because the cost factor is not as great. A lorry is an investment and downtime is profit lost, so the incentive to use such a system is greater.

Work can thus be concentrated on specific areas of repair rather than on an overall inspection. Obviously such onboard equipment needs a failsafe test circuit but this would not present any great difficulty.

'The operator would have the choice of how much information he required and thus how many functions were monitored. The manufacturer could then program the circuitry as required.

Roy Wild of Seddon Atkinson is very conscious that the durability of such electronic systems must be established before the customer can be interested.

Lucas is also nothing if not realistic when it comes to accepting that there might be a market resistance to the increased use of silicon-chip electronics on commercial vehicles. This is likely to manifest itself in two areas.

The operator is used to relatively large components on his chassis. One of the advantages of the whole theory of electronics is the tremendous saving in size (it is possible to incorporate around 4,000 transistors on a silicon chip with 'surface area of only lOsgmm (0.02sqin). As Bill Allarton put it -this advantage could be a disadvantage if the operator

equates smallness with fragility".

Ease of servicing is another area where both Lucas, representing the component manufacturer, and Seddon Atkinson, on the chassis side, are in complete agreement.

The electrical system has always been a problem area on commercial vehicles — not so much in terms of parts cost but in downtime cost. Thus if an electronic system is to become accepted in the future, it must be proved to be reliable.

Eventually, any system or component will suffer a failure. This is where the modular concept of electronic circuitry can be used to advantage as it will be possible to remove one piece of equipment and slot in a replacement immediately. Thus the fear that the commercial vehicle of the future will require an electronics engineer to maintain it is unfounded, according to Lucas.

As I mentioned earlier, current developments in electronics will allow the operator to build up accurate records for his vehicles. It follows from this that the operator likely to benefit most from such technology, is the man with the large fleet. For a two vehicle fleet, say, it would not necessarily be worth the trouble.

In theory, it should be possible to use our friend the silicon chip to get the engine operating at its point of greatest efficiency and thus at maximum economy.

The idea would be to monitor such variables as road speed: engine load and manifold depression and adjust the vehicle gearing to suit.

Lucas calls this "'engine management" and is reluctant to reveal any further details at the moment, but the company is certainly looking at the idea.

Thus the lorry would, in effect, have an on-board computer to suit the engine speed and gearing to the road conditions. According to Roy Wild, this could only apply to a fully automatic gearbox and woul be in effect a "fine tuner" fc the system as it exists today.

It would certainly need a override system, but as fuel lac comes more scarce I wonder research into compute' controlled drive lines will receiv greater impetus.

Extending the line of thougl on monitoring circuitry and i effect on maintenance costs, will be interesting to see if H. chassis manufacturer can the commit the company to specif numbers, that is "your guarai teed costs will be £X becauE our bank of information alloy\ us to predict a cost figure mot accurately''.

Both Lucas and Seddo Atkinson are in no doubt as t what electronics can do. All the have to do is go out and sell th idea to the operator. The cc” will obviously depend upon th degree of sophistication of th equipment and the operatorE requirements.

In other words you will gE what you pay for. If diagnosti systems are launched and th volumes reach economi viability, then a lot more sel vices will be available at a rea istic price, said Bill Allarton.

Future work by Lucas als includes the electrical vehicl being developed in conjunctiol with Bedford. At the momen the CF van used for this wor has about 16 components eithe taken off or added on in corn parison with a "conventional' vehicle.

Lucas is not in the vehich manufacturing business anc does not intend to be in thi future, but the company is wor king towards adding anothe production power unit option tc the existing petrol and diese units, At the start of 1980, then were 60 Lucas CF electric van: in service with a further 4( scheduled by the end of thc year For the future, Lucas looking at an agreemen whereby the operator would bu) the vehicle but lease thE batteries.

Lucas is certainly convince( about the potential of suclvehicles for local distributior work to the extent of esta blishing in Acton what is be lieved to be the first electric vehicle service station,


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