J.S.S. Steelitalia working ahead of current market standards to provide value added products and innovative solutions
The company believes that their purpose is not to build tubes, but to make sure the tubes the customers buy provide the answers to their problems and the solutions to their projects. For this reason Steelitalia continuously strives to improve their technology, quality and customer service. Mr. Mauro Mozzato, Chief Business Unit, states his perceptions of the safety and light-weighting aspects.
Excerpts:
Mandatory and other safety requirements in products
- Our Application based Product / Solution provides Higher safety in terms of Strength (tensile and Yield) and Fire Resistance in comparison to the current material used for building trucks, buses, trailers and other truck application segments.
- With Advanced locking/ joints and corners in existing design of buses can improve safety by around 60%.
Safety features and highlights in applications
- Our product is the tubular structure of the buses that we manufacture in stainless steel. The advantage of the stainless steel is high strength, zero corrosion and huge weight reduction. The bus in stainless steel is 20 per cent to 35 per cent lighter so there is a substantial gain in fuels consumption, stronger so in case of accident the passengers are much better protected than in a traditional bus, and last longer almost 3 times longer than a traditional bus.
- The safety aspect is extremely important as the fact that stainless steel does not corrode means that the joints and corners, typically the weakest points of a bus, do not collapse in case of an accident because of corrosion, like in a normal bus, but stay strong and absorb the impacts saving people’s life. This point is very, very important: 70 per cent of the traditional buses after 8 months they are running will fail the rollover test for corrosion on their joints and corners !!!!
Safety apprehensions at higher road speeds
- Buses in Europe are running at 120 kmph and the accidents are far less than in India, but there are few differences: 1. The busses are all in stainless steel so in case of impact they resist better; 2. The design of the buses are modern and advanced so they better respond to the impacts; 3. The roads are much better than in India, with far less vibrations and better stability on the vehicle.
- It is possible to run faster and safer but we must all work to improve the quality of the buses, I’m very sceptical on the possibility to run that fast without first improving the quality of the vehicles. In my opinion FIRST you improve the vehicle safety, and THEN you can increase the speed. Increasing the speed without imposing higher standard on the safety of the buses is very dangerous.
Technology impact on safety in the times ahead
- At Steelitalia we are already working 5 to 6 years ahead of the current market standard: new design for the buses, new materials, new corners and joints, new interior finishing, etc. The biggest obstacle is the false perception that a cheap bus is a better investment also financially. The biggest change in the market has to happen in the mind of the authorities who have the responsibility to improve the safety of the buses understanding the technical implication and therefore identifying the best solutions: a frontal crash between two buses in Europe at a speed of 120 kmph will damage the frontal part of the vehicle only, in India the same crash at half the speed will completely destroy the two vehicles, somebody has to understand why and how to fix it !!!
Light-weighting necessity and trend
- We manufacture stainless steel tubes for the upper body structure of the buses, our product insure a reduction in weight from 20 to a maximum of 38 per cent.
- Weight reduction is a must to improve the fuel efficiency and consequently the pollution, it is also the best way to reduce corrosion and improve the durability and safety of the vehicle. In Europe 98 per cent of the buses are already in stainless steel, and in North America 95 per cent. Also the new electric buses are on stainless steel structure.
Role of advanced materials in light-weighting
- The future is on the new materials but we need to make sure we are going to use the right material for the right application: the mix aluminium/GI buses are for example a true disaster particularly in safety, the buses after 6 months are not secure anymore as the two metals cannot hold together and the brackets are falling apart. In addition before to use certain materials we need to make sure that the quality of the roads improves running a bus at 140 kmph in India right now is impossible also for the road condition.