Press Release

Nuneaton and Cambridge, October 2002

Contact: David Cebon, Cambridge University (dc@eng.cam.ac.uk)

David Havergill, MIRA (dave.havergill@mira.co.uk)

MIRA Ltd has joined the Cambridge Vehicle Dynamics Consortium. The Consortium is a group of organisations related to the heavy truck industry that has joined forces with researchers from Cambridge University, to develop safer, more comfortable and more 'road-friendly' heavy vehicles. The Consortium includes organisations from various sectors of the industry primarily concerned with vehicle dynamics and suspension design.

MIRA’s membership will provide the Consortium with considerable technical expertise and outstanding facilities for vehicle test and development. The MIRA proving ground will be used for all future vehicle testing for the Consortium's research projects - on advanced suspension concepts for heavy vehicle suspensions.

David Cebon, the Consortium's Research Director says "Having MIRA in the Consortium is great news. The MIRA proving ground is a magnificent facility and they have a great deal of experience in vehicle dynamics and heavy vehicle development. MIRA can benefit by being involved in the ‘blue skies’ research that we do in the Consortium. We are really looking forward to working with MIRA’s engineers on our testing programme - it is a real win-win situation."

According to Dave Havergill, the MIRA Vehicle and Systems Engineering Group Leader, the Consorium "will ensure that MIRA keeps abreast of the needs of the heavy vehicle industry as well as being able to provide some significant expertise to the various projects that are in the pipeline". He adds, " CVDC has demonstrated that an open consortium approach can benefit the individual members greatly as independently they may not have had the resources to develop the new systems and technologies required by the end users. We are very pleased to be asked to join such a successful team".

The main focus of the Consortium's research is to develop improved suspensions which maximise truck safety, minimise road damage and improve driver ride comfort and vehicle body vibration. The research is concentrating on optimising existing suspension components and is investigating advanced concept suspensions with computer-controlled 'active' and 'semi-active' elements. The work involves computer modelling, laboratory testing of prototype hardware and field trials of an instrumented computer-controlled experimental vehicle.

The CVDC has been running since 1994.

The current CVDC members are:

• Firestone - Air Bags
• Fluid Power Design - Hydraulic systems
• General Trailers - Trailer units
• Koni Dampers - Shock absorbers
• Mektronika Systems - Electronics
• Meritor HVS - Axles and trailer suspensions
• MIRA - automotive research and development
• Qinetiq - Off-road vehicles
• Shell UK - Road transport
• Tinsley Bridge - Steel suspension components
• Volvo Trucks - Tractor units

See www.cvdc.org and www.mira.co.uk for more information.