Knowledge of driving license in the heavy vehicle industry

News about the automotive industry in Canada tends to focus on light consumer vehicles – which is understandable given the avalanche of changes taking place in the market towards rapid further electrification. The impact of these market changes is also being felt by a vibrant corner of Canada’s automotive industry that produces transit buses, coaches, other heavy vehicles and agricultural equipment.

The Vehicle Technology Center (VTC), a Manitoba-based not-for-profit organization, is helping heavy vehicle manufacturers in the province address the challenges of achieving zero emissions. It also supports its sector’s drive for greater production efficiency in a small-scale, make-to-order environment where mass production methods simply do not fit.

VTC: History and future

The organization was founded in 2002 and supports technological advancements in Manitoba’s heavy vehicle manufacturing industry. This sector includes manufacturers of city and intercity buses, fire trucks, campers, recreational vehicles, trailers, agricultural and mining equipment, and suppliers of related parts and components. Heavy vehicle manufacturing accounts for about 12 per cent of Manitoba’s workforce and generates nearly $2 billion in annual exports.

The VTC is governed by a board made up of representatives from major industry manufacturers and academia, which provides a forum for promoting industry collaboration and identifying ways to improve the technology capabilities of the industry.

“When the organization was founded, it was because the federal and provincial governments said, ‘What can we do to help further the industry here?’ said Ron Vanderwees, president and CEO of VTC. “At that time, the money they donated was used to purchase test equipment such as corrosion chambers that anyone could use, but no company was able to operate well enough to justify the expense.”

Following the success of this initiative, the organization noticed that many vehicle parts were being shipped from other locations and integrated in Manitoba. VTC was supposed to change that.

“We developed an OEM supplier development program that we ran for many years,” Vanderwees said. “This was also very successful and led to the creation or strengthening of partnerships between local suppliers and OEMs that still exist today.”

Currently, the organization aims to create a regional economic cluster bringing together producers of heavy vehicles and equipment in the voivodeship.

“The goal is to share common needs, collaborate with academia and collaborate on research that will help the broader business community,” Vanderwees said. “We have several topics that we cover in this article. First, how to transition to zero greenhouse gas emissions and how this will impact the diverse range of heavy vehicle types produced in Manitoba, not only considering the vehicles themselves, but also how and where they are used and the charging infrastructure needed to support them.

“The second thing we’re trying to help manufacturers with is how the transition to smart, connected and autonomous vehicles will fundamentally change our vehicles and the way we use them,” he continued.

Another area of ​​interest is Industry 4.0, i.e. digital integration of production. Many of the tools in the digital manufacturing toolbar work really well in the light automotive space where you produce the same thing over and over again. It is very easy to adapt the solution to this.

“But we rarely produce the exact same product,” Vanderwees said. “So how do automation and other Industry 4.0 technologies fit into our space? We have the same challenges when it comes to finding employees, but solutions like robotics, for example, do not fit easily into our space in their current form.”

Vision systems

To increase the flexibility of automation, there is one research project underway at the University of Manitoba that VTC has already helped implement. VTC, made up of three member companies, is working with Dr. Matt Khoshdarregi and his research team at the university to use vision systems to trim fiberglass parts so that toolpaths can be created or modified on the fly, depending on what he sees machine.

“The preliminary results from this study are very promising, and we hope that while this seems like a scalable concept, it can be applied to many operations, including welding,” Vanderwees said. “This is a situation where a group of companies collectively invest in research and gain access to the same potential results.”

Working towards zero emissions

Vanderwees points to the unique challenge that heavy vehicles pose when it comes to achieving zero emissions goals.

“If you electrify and add batteries to vehicles operating in remote territories, how can you charge them? For some of these applications, battery life will be very short due to load or duty cycle; some of the current technologies that may work in passenger vehicles will not scale well in our applications.

“VTC creates educational opportunities for our local cluster, allowing them to see what is happening technically in other parts of the world.” he continued. “For example, we hosted a mission trip to a commercial vehicle show in Germany to see what was happening in Europe and other parts of the world and where the trends were heading, since Europe is usually further away from us. Basically, we’re trying to connect with people around the world who have the knowledge we need, connect with them, and help us find out what the future holds.”

Local knowledge sharing

However, there is a clear understanding that sharing knowledge at home is equally important. For this reason, VTC recently launched a technical tour program among its members.

“There’s a lot of research and development going on here in Manitoba, so we’re launching a series of regular tours focusing on companies that are making bold moves in one of the nine pillars of advanced manufacturing. We will be visiting local companies who will share their insights on a specific technology,” Vanderwees said. “The host company will demonstrate the technology, organize a tour of the factory, and VTC plans to provide support there to other companies that may be interested in implementing similar technology in their company.”

The first trip took place in March, during which members visited agricultural equipment manufacturer Buhler Industries. Buhler has invested in Wi-Fi-enabled smart tools on one of its assembly lines that allow multiple products to be built on the same assembly line.

“A question our members often ask is, ‘How can we shorten the innovation cycle to get from concept to first dollar of revenue faster?’” Vanderwees said. “How to shorten the development cycle? What digital tools are available to achieve this?”

Vanderwees is proud that research and knowledge sharing efforts are managed on a tight budget.

“VTC doesn’t have buildings, research labs or a large staff, but we go out into the community and listen to heavy vehicle and equipment manufacturers to determine what products and process technologies our regional cluster of companies needs,” he said. “Then we try to find experts and learning opportunities and share knowledge to make Manitoba the place to design and build heavy vehicles and equipment. This is a true grassroots effort to accelerate technological advancements in Manitoba’s manufacturing environment.”

Editor Robert Colman can be contacted at [email protected].

Vehicle Technology Center, vtci.ca