New design concept of a tank made of plastic material for firefighting vehicle

Abstract

Optimisation work has been increasingly directed at commercial vehicles to reduce their weight and thus enhance their performance. This optimisation, which responds to the requirements of various European standards with regard to the reduction of fuel consumption, also involves the elements mounted on these vehicles. This work discusses the development and design of a firefighting vehicle tank made from plastic material instead of the usual structure or stainless steel, essentially to reduce the weight of the structure. The design and construction feasibility of the components have been developed based on the specifications required. These specifications concern the tank capacity to resist at different load conditions and avoid any external vibrations. To ensure this, the tank consists of a number of internal welded plates in order to reduce the sloshing effect and secondly makes it modular and thus highly adaptable to the customer's needs. Specific method on the production of the component is also provided. Therefore, numerical tests were conducted with linear elastic stress analysis with square brick elements. The boundary conditions applied to the numerical model provide a complete support to the panels and are determined by the load condition of fluid used. This preliminary analysis was conducted to define the thickness of the tank panels and revealed that the use of a plastic tank leads to a weight reduction of about 35% and generates cost savings of about 25-30% compared to the steel equivalent. Therefore, the use of plastic materials compared to the classic materials seems to be very positive and this is critical information to support the final decision in a regulated sector, where the firefighting vehicles are.

Excavator with two or three arms: Dynamical behavior and structural implications

“…On the basis of the results reported in Tables 2-4 and on the basis of the work concerning the lightweighting [21][22][23] of the arms of an excavator using aluminum and composite materials [19][20][21][22][23][24] and also of other components [25], an evaluation of the actions that the hydraulic cylinders must generate to move the load and the arms was made [26].…”

Developed an Innovative Handbike Fork Made of Composite Material

“…A comparison between the properties of aluminum and the composite material is reported in Table 1. For the standard fork is used a 7005 aluminum alloy while for the new models made of composite material is chosen an HM carbon fiber (the best solution for road bikes) together with epoxy resin [7].…”

Fatigue Evaluation for Innovative Excavator Arms Made of Composite Material

“…The use of composite materials also for the structural components [ 4 , 5 ] is very advantageous for many reasons; two of these are that they have very good mechanical properties and low density. Thanks to these properties, in recent years the possibility of applying composite materials in areas not strictly related to the automotive sector has been explored [ 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ]. The added benefit involving the use of these materials is related to the inertia and accelerations reduction, which are very important factors in highly dynamic applications [ 10 , 11 ].…”