FOCUS
Fire service innovation
B117, an internationally recognised standard of salt testing. It also was shown to conform with ingress protection codes IP66 and IP67. IP66 enclosures can protect against powerful
water jets, while IP67 are able to protect against immersion up to 1m. For emergency vehicles en route to urban destinations, this design upgrade could make all the difference. While fire appliances are not wading through a metre of water regularly, increasing floods could make this a more regular occurrence. Furthermore, it is the lower level, long term
exposure to moisture that can render some steering parts unsound. Over time, corrosion and lubrication leakages can gradually worsen, resulting in very stiff steering and high torque characteristics. In these cases, operators face downtime to replace the problematic steering parts, such as the bevel box. Unfortunately, that’s one less fire appliance available for emergency call outs for a problem that could have been avoided
Changing times
As shown in Singapore, emergency vehicle manufacturers are redesigning vehicles to meet modern demand – not only to streamline the size of vehicles, but also to improve manoeuvring and agility. To achieve this, chassis designers
in the emergency vehicle sector are turning to custom parts suppliers to help them produce more compact and agile emergency vehicles than ever before, with no compromise to functionality and ergonomics. Of course, in this highly regulated industry,
a complete redesign of an emergency vehicle cannot happen overnight. One subtle change to the vehicle chassis or steering system could have huge implications for the performance of a vehicle if it is not carefully considered and validated. As vehicle manufacturers take on new
design projects with challenging space saving specifications, mass produced vehicle parts will not suffice. Instead, chassis designers should work closely with bespoke steering parts suppliers that can design, manufacture and test parts specifically for the emergency vehicle project. Manufacturers of new or niche vehicle concepts will also depend on lower volume orders of parts, which may not meet the minimum order volumes of some large well known part suppliers. As one specialist manufacturer of steering systems, Pailton Engineering (see case study on pp37-38) has a low volume cell specifically for such orders.
New challenges
New age emergency vehicle concepts, such as in Singapore, may address the problems
38 APRIL 2020
www.frmjournal.com
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