ETI appoints HORIBA MIRA to a new smart tyre pressure optimisation system project
Energy Technologies Institute
The project aims to develop and demonstrate a commercially viable automated system that will realise potential fuel savings of up to 8% across the UK HDV land fleet by 2020.
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• ETI will invest £200,000 in the first stage of the project which will last four months
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• Project aim is to help increase the fuel efficiency and reduce emissions ofheavy duty land vehicles
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• Follow-on project could see technologies demonstrated on large off road vehicle
The system will be low cost to install and operate, will feature automatic control to eliminate driver intervention and save the owners and operators of heavy duty vehicles significant costs as well as reducing carbon emissions.
In the first stage of the Rolling Resistance Optimisation System (RROS) project, the Nuneaton-based organisation will identify and evaluate potential technological solutions suitable for a wide range of heavy duty vehicles, including lorries, construction and agricultural vehicles.
A follow-on project could see the ETI invest an additional £750,000 to further develop and demonstrate the most promising technologies.
It is planned that a set of tyres will be produced for a demonstration Caterpillar 725 Articulated Truck that is being built as part of the ETI’s Heavy Duty Vehicle Efficiency programme. The project will encompass all heavy duty land vehicles that use pneumatic tyres.
Deborah Stubbs, ETI Project Manager said:
“Operating tyres at the correct pressure is critical to both the safe and efficient operation of a vehicle but the correct pressure can be different depending on the ground contact conditions and the type of road surface.
“The aim of this project is to design, develop and demonstrate an innovative system that can optimise the tyre operating pressure for any given condition which will help to increase fuel efficiency and reduce carbon emissions by around 8% and can be suitable for existing vehicles.”
Jim Hopton, Chief Engineer at HORIBA MIRA added:
“HORIBA MIRA brings an independent technology view to the project with the aim of finding the right technology to achieve the identified goals. This type of project could only be progressed by an umbrella organisation such as the ETI whose goals are not primarily commercial.”
