THE LOCKWOOD REPORT

BRING ON THOSE BUMPY ROADS

April 25, 2012 Vol. 8, No. 9

An interesting presentation was scheduled for today at the 2012 SAE World Congress in Detroit by Jen Tran, new technology project engineer at Jacobs Vehicle Systems. We all know Jacobs for its engine retarding and valve actuation products. The Jake brake and all that.

Tran’s technical paper, SAE 2012-01-0814, is entitled ‘Recovering Energy from Shock Absorber Motion on Heavy Duty Commercial Vehicles.’ As titles go, it hides nothing, and pretty much tells you what comes next. I’ve often thought technical paper writers could use the services of a good headline writer. A little drama, maybe some irony, even a touch of humour. OK, maybe not.

Anyway, Jacobs says it’s busy researching new technologies that mesh with it calls its core competencies and adjacent core markets. As well it should. And this is an example of that effort.

The GenShock system that Tran showed off earlier today offers the potential for active variable damping control for semi-active ride control, improved driver comfort, and rollover mitigation, but it goes one step further in a why-didn’t-I-think-of-that sort of way. The system also recovers energy in electrical form that would normally be dissipated as heat in conventional shock absorbers or suspension dampers. But of course! It’s a natural.

Heavy-duty vehicles, being… well, heavy, offer some very good opportunities for energy recovery, says Jacobs. If harnessed, it can effectively unload a truck’s alternator and thereby avoid burning fuel to power the vehicle’s electrical systems.

Jacobs, in co-operation with partner Levant Power, is looking to commercialize this new type of vehicle system for heavy-duty vehicles of all types, specifically for on-highway trucks. Several prototype systems are currently in operation, and the technology is seen as being available in the near term.

This is very cool, very interesting, but I do hope it doesn’t mean governments will relax their road maintenance efforts. I mean, the bumpier the road, the more energy there is to be collected by the GenShock system. A perverse government could conceivably define failure to maintain roads as a green initiative. Am I being too cynical?

VOLVO’S RELEASE OF ITS XE16 powertrain package warms my bitter heart, because it acknowledges the heavier weights hauled north of the border and in many individual states. A 143,000-lb B-train is a pretty common vehicle up here, and the chance to run such a rig with 2050 lb ft of torque available at 1000 rpm, cruising at just over 1125 rpm, is pretty cool.

Volvo Trucks chose to introduce this at Truck World 2012, our very own show held last weekend in Toronto. And a smashing success it was, with a great spirit in the air and smiles all around. Ed Saxman, Volvo’s drivetrain product manager, was on hand and we had a good long chat about XE16 and other things.