Commercial Transportation News

The U.S. Transportation Research Board says using directional sound "icons" in a cab may lead to increased truck driver situational awareness. An ongoing study is investigating if distinct audio cues for different sensed hazards (pedestrian, bicycle, motorbike, and car) or verbal phrases are most effective. Carefully positioned speakers in a cab have been used to provide instinctive location information via directional sounds. Questions remaining address object detection/recognition, information overload, and integration into current cab systems and sounds.

Join key manufacturers and industry professionals from around the globe at GlobalSpec's Automotive & Transportation Technology event. Explore the latest developments impacting hybrid and electric vehicle development, discover new manufacturing techniques, and more. Watch for registration details.

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BETAFOAM™ structural foams from Dow Automotive Systems fill and seal body-in-white cavities to reinforce sheet metal, producing stiffness continuity across body joints and pillars. The foams deliver a better ride and handling, and improved NVH so less acoustic treatment is needed. They also enable OEMs to use thinner sheet metal. AHSS with BETAFOAM structural reinforcement is 36-plus pounds lighter and 10% less expensive than conventional solutions. Convenient cartridges are provided for commercial vehicle applications.

Leading Edge Metals & Alloys LLC can help you find the material you need to get the job done. Metals used in the aerospace industry must be light and strong, providing unmatched reliability despite extreme pressure, high heat, and dramatic shifts in temperature.

Eaton has announced a new series of UltraShift® Plus® transmissions designed to maximize fuel economy for Navistar diesel trucks. The 16-speed direct drive automated mechanical units feature a small (17%) step between gears — maximizing the time the engine runs in its most efficient rpm range. An electric clutch actuator provides smoother, faster shifting. Fleet testing shows the new transmissions can improve fuel efficiency 2-4%.

Convergence instruments' Vibration Sentry Datalogger VS RT64 and RT128 are extremely sensitive, rugged, and sealed weatherproof smart dataloggers that can record inclination, acceleration, vibration, and impacts for months. Our dataloggers are used for a variety of applications including:

•  Monitoring of operation and transport conditions of fragile equipment
•  Continuous monitoring of machinery wear
•  Inclination recording

PremaTech Advanced Ceramics, a leader for 30 years in machining ultra-hard materials, introduces its first 5-axis CNC capability. This new equipment also utilizes an innovative material removal mechanism that is 3-5x faster than traditional grinding. These new levels of automation and machining speed result in faster job routing and more economical pricing.

At SAB North America, you are able to find varieties of cables for the rail industry in our latest catalog. Cables meeting all of the current standards including ASTM, DIN, NF, and many more can be found here. Low Smoke Halogen-free cables and specialty cables for the railway industry and more.

Lanfranco Fasteners is a transit focused manufacturer of Locknuts, Gang Channels, and Parts to Plan for Railways, Busses and Heavy Vehicles. Our ESL & ERM dual slotted locknuts are the choice for bolted joints subjected to alternating shocks, vibration, and extreme temperatures. Certified ISO 9001:2008.

Acceleration and deceleration control is critical in trains and people movers. The input dynamics of these systems are constantly changing as people board and disembark, operating environments change and train spacing becomes ever tighter. Jewell Instruments standard and custom accelerometers can be the perfect solution for adjusting acceleration for a safe and comfortable ride.

Colibrys' accelerometers have a worldwide reputation and are integrated in a wide range of systems.

Vibration Sensing: Precise MEMS capacitive accelerometer for wide dynamic measurements.
Tilt Sensing: High resolution and accuracy for angle measurements.
Seismic Sensing: Best-in-class MEMS sensor for structure health monitoring.
Inertial Sensing: High stability products for guidance and navigation.

Commercial trucking, and traffic in general, may be vulnerable to hacker-triggered traffic jams — from anywhere in the world. Navigation and traffic monitoring systems use real-time information collected by Wi-Fi and GPS to track user location. A graduate student at Germany's Hamburg University of Technology demonstrated how such traffic-flow-analysis systems on smartphone apps could be hacked by controlling the Transport Layer Security tunnel on a malware infected phone to send compromised traffic data (keys, time stamps, etc.) to, say, Google Maps.

Although the implications for energy savings in commercial sea transport have yet to be determined, the solar-powered demonstrator Tûranor PlanetSolar set a new trans-Atlantic crossing record for such vessels. The 22+ day voyage was part of a science expedition from Spain to St Martin in the Caribbean. By necessity, the ship's course was indirect to avoid unfavorable winds and currents — besting its previous record by more than four days, six hours.

It could be called "From the Moon to the Earth," but Lockheed Martin plans to use NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans — where Apollo rocket stages and Space Shuttle external tanks where made — to fabricate liquefied natural gas (LNG) fuel tanks for ocean vessels. The company will use the singular large-structure expertise and manufacturing equipment at the site to fabricate the insulated cryogenic LNG storage tanks.

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