Trelleborg Sealing Solutions launches Turcon® Roto L Seal to lower Off-Highway Vehicle and Truck Operators’ Costs
For Immediate release: April 2013
Leading seal and bearing developer and manufacturer, Trelleborg Sealing Solutions, launches the unique Turcon® Roto L seal. Its patented design means it only seals when required. Used in central tire inflation systems, this gives total life sealing and most importantly, helps off-highway vehicle and truck operators save energy and fuel, lowering their overall operating costs.
Trelleborg Sealing Solutions has engineered a seal that only seals around the axle of central tire inflation systems when required: when the tire is pressurized to inflate or deflate it. Conventional seals for central tire inflation systems are constantly heavily in contact with a vehicle’s axle, wearing the seal and causing friction that uses energy, thereby consuming fuel unnecessarily. By eliminating friction when the tire is not pressurized, Turcon® Roto L prevents unnecessary energy loss, cutting fuel consumption appreciably.
“The most obvious advantage of the Turcon® Roto L sealing concept is that seal life is extended,” says Holger Jordan, Manager Fluid Power Technology at Trelleborg Sealing Solutions headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany. “Only operating perhaps 10 percent of the life of the vehicle’s axle system, it means the seal is going to provide total system life sealing. More importantly though is that friction is eliminated when there is no pressurization. This saves energy and leads to significant fuel savings for the vehicle operator.”
Turcon® Roto L combines a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) sealing lip with a rubber jacket and a stable shape-forming metal part. The seal’s patented design means that for the majority of the time, the sealing lip is held up against the sealing surface. The seal is only activated when the system is pressurized. Then, the pressure causes the sealing lip to press against the sealing surface until the pressure is relieved. Afterward the jacket of the seal, acting like a spring, brings the sealing lip back to its original position.
As the seal has less than half the friction of a conventional seal for central tire inflation systems, its use also allows the vehicle operator to deflate and re-inflate tires when the vehicle is on the move. It can take between 20 and 30 minutes to adjust the pressure on large commercial tires. If this can be done while the vehicle is moving between jobs, that’s up to 30 minutes that the commercial vehicle can be working rather than idle, further lowering a vehicle operator’s overall costs.
Though Turcon® Roto L was originally developed primarily for off-highway vehicles, Frank Kleemann, the product manager for the seal, believes there are other applications where it can provide benefits to users.
“We’re talking to truck manufacturers. Turcon® Roto L seal makes the extension of tire inflation systems possible, and we see particular benefits on long-based and multi-trailer trucks where tire pressures could be optimized to road and load conditions. This would improve traction and safety and potentially result in considerable fuel savings for transport companies.
“Performance cars are another target. When super sports cars drive slowly, the tires should be kept at low pressure. At high speeds the cars will perform better if the tire is at high pressure, or different on each wheel, depending on the track it is traveling on.”
Central tire inflation systems are commonly used on the axle of agricultural and off-highway vehicles. The pressure of a vehicle’s tires is increased or decreased depending on the surface a vehicle is traveling on or the field or site the vehicle is working in.
ENDS
For more information, more detailed test results or high-resolution images, contact: Sarah Baum, Marketing Communications Manager, Trelleborg Sealing Solutions Americas, 1-260-748-5752. Email sarah.baum@trelleborg.com.
For press information: Faith Van Gilder, Asher Agency, 535 W. Wayne St., Fort Wayne, IN 46802. 1-260-424-3373. Email faithv@asheragency.com.
For press releases from the whole of Trelleborg Group, visit the Trelleborg Media Center. The Products and Solutions section allows you to select news by industry. Go to www.trelleborg.com/news where you can also subscribe to our newsletter.
Information about Trelleborg Sealing Solutions and Trelleborg Group
Trelleborg Sealing Solutions is one of the world’s leading developers, manufacturers and suppliers of precision seals. It supports its aerospace, industrial and automotive customers through over 20 production facilities and more than 40 marketing companies globally. Within its portfolio are some of the longest established sealing brands, including Busak+Shamban, Chase Walton, Dowty, Forsheda, GNL, Palmer Chenard, Shamban, Skega and Stefa along with a large number of proprietary products and materials such as TurconÒ, ZurconÒ, OrkotÒ, IsolastÒ, StepsealÒ and Wills RingsÒ. www.tss.trelleborg.com
Trelleborg is a world leader in engineered polymer solutions that seal, damp and protect critical applications in demanding environments. Its innovative engineered solutions accelerate performance for customers in a sustainable way. The Trelleborg Group has annual sales of about SEK 21 billion (EUR 2.3 billion, USD 3.2 billion) in over 40 countries. The Group comprises five business areas: Trelleborg Coated Systems, Trelleborg Industrial Solutions, Trelleborg Offshore & Construction, Trelleborg Sealing Solutions and Trelleborg Wheel Systems. In addition, Trelleborg owns 50 percent of TrelleborgVibracoustic, a global leader within antivibration solutions for light and heavy vehicles, with annual sales of approximately SEK 14 billion (EUR 1.55 billion, USD 2.2 billion) in about 20 countries. The Trelleborg share has been listed on the Stock Exchange since 1964 and is listed on NASDAQ OMX Stockholm, Large Cap. www.trelleborg.com
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