Technology company Continental is taking an important step
in the direction of an industry standard with its HiTemp air springs. A well-known Swedish
commercial vehicle manufacturer is equipping as standard all of its truck driver’s cabs with sleeve
air springs, which can easily withstand temperatures between -40 and +100 degrees Celsius. The
project is being implemented in close collaboration with a market-leading shock absorber
manufacturer.
Truck drivers often cover vast distances – not to mention the vehicles that experience a wide range
of different regions and climate zones over their service life. To ensure that the driver’s cab is kept
safe and comfortable both in the winter cold of Scandinavia or Russia, as well as in the summer
heat of Spain, North Africa, or even in southern Asia, Continental has developed the HiTemp
solution, which performs reliably even under extreme temperatures.
The air springs meet the increasing demands on truck components: the stricter exhaust-gas
standards heat up the engine compartment to a much greater extent, ensuring extremely hot
operating conditions. The advantage of the sleeve air springs: they allow for easier heat
management and offer the manufacturer greater flexibility when defining the installation space of
the cab mount. There is no need for a heat shield to protect the air springs against intense heat
radiation. This makes the spring function significantly cheaper than previous solutions – reduced
idle time and lower repair costs are further advantages.
Temperature resistance is becoming increasingly important in a global world
“The fact that from now on our customer will be installing our temperature-resistant model of sleeve
air spring in its entire truck fleet as standard is not just confirmation of our strategy of bringing this
product into focus for our partners and customers. It is also an important step on the way to
establishing the HiTemp sleeve air spring as the standard in the commercial vehicle industry,” says
Holger Brüning, head of air spring systems for commercial vehicle original equipment at
Continental. “The sleeve air springs for extreme temperatures not only ensure significant
improvements in use at high temperatures, but also increase the permissible range at minus
temperatures. In addition, the sleeve can withstand an extreme long-term stress.”
In addition to the innovative rubber compound that forms the basis of the sleeve air spring, which is
based on high-temperature elastomers for high-performance bonds in terms of dynamic resilience
and thermal resistance, the enhanced manufacturing process in the Hanover-Vahrenwald plant is
crucial for the improved performance. “In the future, we will see great demand for our HiTemp air
springs, and the demand will continue to grow. This is why we are also systematically investing in
our production processes and continuously expanding our production capacity,” says Brüning.
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