UK consortium aims for composite anti-roll bars for trucks and trains
A UK consortium is developing lightweight anti-roll bars, which could cut fuel consumption and emissions from rail and heavy road vehicles while improving their reliability.
The project, funded by Innovate UK, will develop high performance metal composite hybrid anti-roll bars for trucks and trains.
The research team consists of Sheffield-based anti-roll bar specialist Tinsley Bridge, engineering company Performance Engineered Solutions, and Sheffield University’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC).
By producing the bars from composite with metal end pieces, the project team hopes to reduce their weight by over 60 per cent, according to Matt Smith of the AMRC Composite Centre. “We've shown in a previous project that we can achieve weight savings of over 60 per cent,” he said. “We now hope to improve on that while also improving [the material’s] performance.”
As well as reducing a vehicle’s fuel consumption and emissions, the development could also cut maintenance costs as the composite metal hybrid bar should never need replacing, unlike its metal counterparts, he said.
The composite component should also be able to withstand larger dynamic loads than metal bars.
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