Continuing its relentless pursuit of weight reduction in its products, Jamna Auto Industries (JAI), the country’s largest manufacturer of leaf and parabolic springs for commercial vehicles, presented its all-new composites leaf springs along with three new suspension systems.
Sharing details of the products on display at the JAI pavilion, Mr. Sunil Laroiya, Vice President – R&D and International Business, JAI, said: “The first product is a 6-ton lift axle for 37-ton and 31 ton vehicles which we supply to major OEM’s and are working with couple more customers. We have designed a new fabricated axle instead of the commonly-used forged axle, which has resulted in a weight reduction of nearly 35 kg, with absolute no compromise on the performance or life of the product.”
Mr. Laroiya added: “The second product is our new 10-ton life axle which has been developed for a 41-ton vehicle. This is a very new product in the market and has been validated on rigs, on the roads and also with one of our OE customers. We have done prototyping for one of our major customer, regular production to start very soon. We are in discussion with another OEMs also.”
The third product is probably the most eye-catching – one that could completely transform the market dynamics. “The next product is a completely rubberized suspension ‘Dynalastic’ for off road applications which comes with the assurance of negligible maintenance. In bogie suspensions, each axle is dependent on the other; but here we have a pivot in the middle which makes the axles independent of each other. The suspensions currently used in mining vehicles in India usually last for very less hours; this suspension will increase life of suspension by many folds. In the US, our partner gives a warranty of seven years on this product which shows the kind of reliability we offer”, he explained.
The fourth product from JAI was a trailer suspension, a segment which the company has recently entered. The suspension has two axles on parabolic springs with a weight reduction of about 25%, as compared to axles on leaf springs, with the third axle being a lift axle of 13-ton capacity, the major USP of the system.
Composite springs
Besides suspensions, the other main focus area for JAI at the fair was its newly-developed composite springs. “We have displayed the composite springs we have developed for Tata Xenon. While the conventional spring weighs around 20 kg, the composite one weighs only 6 kg, which is a weight reduction of 60 per cent. It has been validated for 500,000 cycles on the rig, as against a requirement of 200,000 cycles for parabolic and 100,000 for conventional springs, so there is no compromise whatsoever on the performance or life of the product”, stated the VP, brimming with confidence. In addition to less weight the ride of this suspension is much smoother as compared to steel springs mainly due to no frication in the system.
JAI also showcased, mainly for HCVs, its hybrid springs with one steel parabolic leaf and one composite leaf, achieving about 50 per cent reduction.
Asked about the durability and reliability of the new light-weight products, he replied: “Composite springs have been in use in the US and European markets for over 20 years, so there is no question about their reliability. We have just launched them in India and are showcasing them for the first time here at Auto Expo. With BS-VI vehicles coming in, weight reduction will be a very important factor. We are preparing ourselves for 2020 with these new products.”