| Stopping
dangerous trailer skids
A Norwegian invention may reduce
the number of fatal accidents between trailer trucks and cars.
 |
SCARY,
SCARY:
Øyvind Haave demonstrates how on
a curve, just a light touch on the
brakes is enough to start a trailer
skidding past the truck pulling it.
Contact: Gunnar Kvernland
Tel: +47 917 83 362
email: gunnark@online.no
|
| Photo: Rune Petter Ness |
Slippery winter roads make it easy for trailers
trucks to skid. Roads with deep grooves or curves, evasive maneuvers,
and sudden braking all raise the risk of a trailer skid.
Willy Marthinussen from Malm in North Trøndelag has invented
a mechanism that stops trailer skids and straightens out the vehicle.
The technological prototype for the mechanism has been developed
in cooperation with NTNU.
CONTROL BOX WARNS
The anti-skid mechanism consists of an intelligent control box that
detects incipient skids and activates a mechanism that then counteracts
the uncontrolled movement. A car with a trailer has one spot that
allows for rotation: the trailer hook. A four-wheel trailer attached
to a truck also has front wheels that turn. Hence, there are two
weak points where a trailer on a large truck may skid. The control
box continuously registers the speed and movements of the trailer.
If a trailer starts to skid, the control box activates the counteracting
mechanism immediately.
INVENTOR AND SCIENTISTS
Two years ago, Marthinussen presented a sketch of the antiskid mechanism
to the Department of Energy and Process Engineering. “We recognized
the quality and potential of the idea right away – and we
were eager to help develop it,” says PhD student Øyvind
Haave and consultant Gunnar Kvernland. Practical solutions were
discussed with hydraulics experts at the department. Marthinussen
was aided in checking for possible patents of similar mechanisms,
setting up a business plan and applying for funds to develop the
product. The Norwegian Industrial and Regional Development Fund
(SND) granted the inventor some money for first phase research.
To document what happens when a large trailer skids on a slippery
surface, the scientists and the inventor cooperated with a driver
training school in the Trondheim area. A video recording was made
as an experienced truck driver caused his rig to skid by nudging
the brake a bit. “That was all it took for the trailer to
almost skid ahead of the truck,” explains Haave. The video
proved that you need a lot of room to accommodate a skidding trailer.
| ACCIDENTS
INVOLVING LARGE TRUCKS WITH TRAILERS |
| One fatal accident costs
society more than 20 million kroner. In 2002, police registered
282 accidents involving trailer trucks on Norwegian roads. This
is an increase of 6% from the year before. Thirty-one people
were killed, and 387 were injured in 2002, all in accidents
involving large trucks with trailers. |
FROM CATASTROPHIC TO MINIMAL
The next step was to involve the Department of Engineering Cybernetics
in creating a mathematical model of the anti-skid mechanism. Once
installed in a simulation program, the model provided scientists
with the opportunity to study a variety of scenarios. The simulations
illustrated how the mechanism reduced an uncontrollable skid on
snow from a 90-degree to a 10-degree rotation without any help from
the driver. With a normal reaction from the driver, the skid could
be reduced to as little as a 2-degree oscillation. The mechanism
also causes the trailer to stabilize the truck if it starts to skid.
NEXT PHASE – BUILDING AND
TESTING A PROTOTYPE
The next phase of the project will be to test the anti-skid mechanism
on a trailer truck; the group is looking for investors to help build
a prototype. Eventually, the group hopes to establish a company
together with GründerParken AS. This company, which will be
called Wimasafe, will be in charge of commercializing the anti-skid
mechanism.
Nina E. Tveter |
