DRIVING THE INDUSTRY SINCE 1991
uous that we limit the exposure time for human drivers,” says Dave Payne, manager of vehicle development operations. “Te challenge is completing testing to meet ve- hicle development time lines while keeping our drivers comfortable.” Te durability technology, based at the
company’s Michigan Proving Grounds in Ro- meo, Mich., includes a robotic control module installed in the test vehicle that controls vehi- cle steering, acceleration and braking. Te tests can compress 10 years of daily driving abuse into courses just a few hundred yards long, with surfaces that include broken concrete, cobblestones, metal grates, rough gravel, mud pits and oversized speed bumps. “We accelerate durability testing while
simultaneously increasing the productiv- ity of our other programs by redeploying drivers to those areas, such as noise level and vehicle dynamics testing,” said Payne.
TESTING PARTNERSHIP WITH GOVERNMENT
Trough vehicle development and assem-
bly, manufacturers work in tandem with the federal government, so that a bus has the green light compliance to enter the market- place. And passing the exams are notewor- thy milestones. For example, in June, Micro Bird announced that it completed a near six-month testing phase of its DRW G5. It was done in partnership with Altoona Testing, part of the bus-testing program of the Federal Transit Administration. Te Micro Bird G5 wheelchair-lift
bus required a seven-year/200,000 miles STURAA test (required by the Surface Transportation and Uniform Relocation Assistance Act of 1987). Te Altoona Test, performed in Duncansville, Pa., is required for any bus purchased utilizing Feder- al Transit Administration funds. “We’ll validate designs internally and use
third-party subcontractors to validate and test what we’ve done, so there’s no internal bias,” said Girardin. Blue Bird buses have continually undergone
Altoona Testing since 1993. In February, the Micro Bird DRW G5 with a wheelchair lift successfully completed the STURAA test. While there is no pass or fail designation
applied, the standardized test is utilized as a comparison tool for purchase decisions. If a bus experiences substantial product rede- sign, the Altoona Test is re-administered. “Tis is a de facto standard in the transit
industry, if they want to sell to a federal grantee,” said Dave Klinikowski, director of the Altoona Bus Research and Testing
Center at Penn State. “It’s a bragging point when you do well here. It’s also a handy tool, especially for marketing.” All testing and data is publicly available public at
www.altoonabustest.com.
DEEPER SAFETY TESTING FOR TYPE A Being that the cargo is children, the rules
and regulations for school buses can be even more stringent, especially on the safety front, and the standards get stretched even more. Such has been the case involving seat
belts for some Type A buses at the gross vehicle weight requirement point of 10,000 pounds. School buses with GVWR less than or equal to 10,000 pounds are small school buses, which go on a custom path of vehicle testing before transporting students. Effective October 2011, the National High- way Traffic Safety Administration (NHT- SA) released its final ruling that changed the nature of school buses under 10,000 pounds GVWR. New standards were set for the crashworthiness of school buses, and a new mandate was established for lap-shoul- der belts, higher back seats and performance requirements for belted seating. With updates, the industry now has design
parameters and testing standards for belted seating, along with an ongoing requirement for true compartmentalization, according to school-bus seat manufacturer SafeGuard. NHTSA developed the seat-belt require- ments using data from sled tests simulating the crash profile of small and large school buses with different size dummies in a va- riety of restraint environments. From there, companies can choose to go beyond and above the standards. According to SafeGuard, the company not only met the static tests required by FM- VSS 222 and 210, it did more sled testing at the Center for Advanced Product Evalua- tion (CAPE) for its unique seating product. “SafeGuard shared a significant amount of testing data with NHTSA in a collaborative effort to help establish parameters for design and testing of belted seating for school buses,” said James Johnson, vice president of market- ing and business development at IMMI. While testing provides protection, the fi-
nal safety equation comes together through safe operation, training and disciplined maintenance. “When you look at testing, it’s one thing to test and bring a safe vehicle to market. We have to include the actual driving. Tat also is a big part of the safety on the road,” added Girardin. “We are all transporting kids, our future.”
SCHOOL BUS EXHAUST
> America’s Most Complete Coverage > Original Equipment Fix > 48 Years Manufacturing School Bus Exhaust Systems > Over 2,500 School Garages Served This Year > Diesel, Gas, Conventional, Flatnose or Van--We Make Them All!
JUST IN! New School Bus
Exhaust Catalogs
AVAILABLE NOW! New Systems
New Accessories
188 Pages of Exhaust Parts Both Old & New!
Includes Many Photos and a Cross Reference!
Muffler Manufacturing London, Ontario
Des Moines, Iowa
Call for a FREE Catalog 800-247-5391
-NO VOICEMAIL-
Talk to people who know bus exhaust Email:
brandon@auto-jet.com Fax: 515-224-0727
Manufacturing Bus & Truck Parts Since 1969
www.auto-jet.com
www.stnonline.com 49
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76