Range of New Products Unveiled by Suppliers at TMC
By Frederick Kiel, Staff Reporter
This story appears in the Feb. 23 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.
ORLANDO, Fla. — New products shown at the Technical & Maintenance Council’s recent meeting here ranged from a high-tech flatbed trailer to a low-tech mud flap, along with a seat and sleeping pad that combine New Age philosophy with Texas Instruments engineering.
Fontaine Trailer Co. introduced two versions of its Revolution flatbed trailer. The regular model, which Fontaine calls “pound for pound, the lightest, strongest platform trailer” in the world, is made of aluminum, weighs 8,000 pounds and has a concentrated load rating of 60,000 pounds in four feet. A hybrid model, made of an aluminum-steel composite, weighs 1,000 pounds more.
“The Revolution is a radically different design that has no cross members to hold up the floor but instead has hundreds of hollow aluminum squares under the floor that offer much greater strength,” Hank Pro-chazka, Fontaine’s vice president of sales, told Transport Topics.
He said the trailers are made using a welding method that is “the same process that airline manufacturers used to produce their parts in order to withstand the tremendous stress of flight, but it has never been cost-effective before for trucking,”
Anderson Flap Co. introduced its three-pound nylon Eco-flap, whose dozens of openings allow air to pass through the flap.
Company president Barry Anderson said solid rubber flaps weigh 10 to 20 pounds and that the Eco-flaps suppress spray and splash on wet highways.
The company showed a video of trucks with regular flaps and others with Eco-flaps moving on a highway at the same time, in the same conditions. The rush of air blew the regular flaps backward and upward, while the Eco-flaps hung straight down as the air passed straight through.
“I developed my new flap for safety reasons to eliminate the snow and rain clouds that tractor-trailers blow out, potentially blinding both the truck and drivers alongside and behind the vehicle,” Anderson told TT.
“It was later realized that it also greatly improved fuel efficiency, and that was right at the height of the diesel fuel price run-up,” Anderson said.
He said the Eco-flaps save a truck an average of $1,500 annually, “based on 3.5% miles-per-hour improvement at $2.20 per gallon,” Anderson said
The BioMat Co. introduced its seat and sleeping mats for trucking at TMC, which it said “produces negative ions, nature’s energizer, which deliver a molecular level massage. It balances pH by decreasing acidity and is considered the ‘master power switch,’ which activates the body’s entire cellular communication system, making every body function work better.”
The BioMat is a “pad that lies on top of your . . . mattress [and] converts electricity through a computerized control panel, produced by Texas Instruments, into far infrared rays, nature’s invisible light,” a company statement said.
“FIR was discovered by NASA to be the safest, most beneficial light wave,” the statement added. “This reduces swelling, increases blood flow and has been shown to destroy cancer and viral cells without harming surrounding healthy cells. It penetrates 6-8 inches into the innermost recesses of the body, stimulating healing and regeneration of nerves and muscle tissue layers.”
The pads consist of clear silicon urethane panel over the entire surface of the BioMat that “allows the beauty of the amethyst gems to be enjoyed,” according to the company statement.
Kohler Co., West Dundee, Ill., and Bergstrom Inc., Rockford, Ill., formed a partnership to offer a new hybrid auxiliary power system for over-the-road tractors that they introduced at TMC.
The system combines the Bergstrom No-Idle Thermal Environment battery-powered in-cab power system with a Kohler low-power diesel engine.
The diesel engine generates 110 amps with 4.7 horsepower in a package about the size of a carry-on suitcase.
The hybrid auxiliary power system used alone can power a cab’s cooling and appliance systems for at least 10 hours, while the small diesel engine will let the system run as long as the main fuel tanks have fuel, without using the main engine. The small engine also runs the cab’s heating system.
Noregon Systems introduced a new generation of software and adapters that link laptop computers of repair shop technicians to the computers of trucks and engines. The system converts all of the information into a single interface for quick diagnostics.
