The following is a message I received from Bob Murphy in Australia.
-DC


>The 1999 Technical and Maintenance Conference of the  Australian Trucking
>Association and Australian Road Transport Suppliers  Association ended
>yesterday.   One of the most important developments in the entire
>"road-friendly" suspension issue was unveiled at that Conference.   It has
>wide reaching implications for heavy truck  productivity, transport cost
>reduction, and road wear reduction.   That development is the "Road
>Friendly Suspension  Analyzer" by Roaduser International and displayed for
>the first time at the  Conference.   It is now possible to precisely and
>quickly test whether a  suspension on a truck is actually road-friendly or
>not.    The device is accurate enough to use for suspension  development,
>suspension tuning, dialling in the best dampers with the biggest
>road-friendly reserve built in to increase longevity, and ADR
>certification.   The RFS Analyzer is also simple enough and fast enough to
>use  for roadside enforcement.

I was on the NRTC Mass Limits Review Steering Committee for  two years and
the RFS Analyzer has filled in the missing link in the whole  Road-Friendly
debate.    The missing link was verification of damper performance.  Damper
performance was the main difference between the best and worst  performing
heavy vehicle suspensions tested during the Mass Limits Review. The  best
and the worst (lowest and highest peak dynamic loads) performing
suspensions were both air. They were, in fact, the same air suspension,
with and  without shock absorbers.   The state road authorities quite
rightly reticent about the  new mass limits because there was no practical
way for them to ensure claimed  road-friendly suspension types were
actually road-friendly  in-service.   It appears to be possible and
practical to ensure suspensions  are road-friendly.   Given the short lead
up to the January 1 requirement for  suspension certification, the concerns
of the state road authorities, and  the release of the new Analyzer at the
Technical and  Maintenance Conference, I thought it appropriate to
forward this  information directly to people I know who might be
interested.   The information and photos will most probably appear in  the
trade media in due course.   If anyone wants a pic, I took some at the
Conference. Let me  know.   The attachment is in Word 7. I did a cut and
paste below my  signature block for those with firewalls and other such
things who cannot open  attachments.

Regards,   Bob Murphy

>IS Edit Transport & Technical  Communications
>PO Box 111
>Campbells Creek VIC  3451
>AUSTRALIA   Tel: +61 3 5476 4408
>Fax: +61 3 5476 4474
>Mob: 0418 312  116   [log in to unmask]




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Dr David Cebon
Cambridge University Engineering Department
Trumpington Street,  Cambridge CB2 1PZ,  UK

Tel    +44 1223 332665           Email: [log in to unmask]
Fax   +44 1223 332662          URL: http://www2.eng.cam.ac.uk/~dc
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