Have you ever been on the highway next to a tractor trailer and felt your car being sucked into the vacuum surrounding it? Or ever wondered what type of fuel mileage they get? Well, we met with seasoned trucker and aerodynamic visionary Bob Sliwa of AirFlow Truck Company and Jeremy Singley of Jeremy Singley Industrial Design to talk about these problems.
Bob Sliwa was an amateur drag racer during his high school years in CT and throughout New England where he loved going fast as quickly as possible. When he was finally old enough for his Commercial Driver’s License (CDL), he bought his own truck and was surprised at what poor fuel mileage the truck got, at only 4.4 MPG. He decided to use his drag racing experience to improve the fuel mileage on his truck to increase profits for his business. But this time, the goal was not going from point “A” to point “B” as quickly as possible, but most efficiently as possible.
In 1983 Bob built one of the first aerodynamic tractor trailers in the world and gained some great sponsors and recognition. His truck was up around 10MPG just one year after the truck was built!
In 2008 the average fuel mileage for a tractor trailer was around 6.5 MPG which hadn’t changed much since the 1980’s, and the price of diesel fuel skyrocketed to $4.80 locally. So Bob decided to take another swing at an aerodynamic design with the goal of reaching 15 MPG with relatively light but full trailer loads.
Bob connected with Jeremy Singley to discuss this project and design the new truck inside SolidWorks. They went back and forth electronically and over the phone for about 1 year communicating changes and revisions before they even met in person!
These were the renderings that Jeremy created in SolidWorks which Bob posted on his website which created a mass amount of website traffic and interest from sponsors.
The SuperTruck is now in full size prototype mode, with a hand molded fiberglass front end, side skirts, ducted radiator and other aerodynamic features.
Bob Sliwa and Jeremy Singley in front of the SuperTruck.
The trailer has side skirts made of Thermo Plastic Olefin (TPO) and the trailer sports a full vinyl wrap by one of Bob’s sponsors.
The trailer side skirts are attached along their top edge with full-length aluminum piano hinges. If the skirts have contact with the pavement, such as going over a railroad crossing, they roll inward to avoid damage. After passing the obstruction, a fiberglass rod springs the skirts back to their original aerodynamic position.
In order to determine the actual aerodynamics of their design, Jeremy used SolidWorks Flow Simulation to run an analysis on the truck and the trailer.
Once Jeremy found the best design, we printed it on one of our Stratasys 3D printers using the fused deposition modeling (FDM) technology. Bob will be hauling freight with the SuperTruck coast to coast to prove proof of concept to gain more awareness and sponsorship. He noted that more than 60% of the tractor trailer trucks’ fuel consumption is used just to push the air out of the way! Companies with large fleets can save thousands of dollars each year by increasing the fuel mileage of their trucks, therefore improving their profit margin.
The next step is to bring the vision and the newest FutureTruck version to full scale production. In order to actually build the next-generation design, the FutureTruck would need to be built from scratch rather than modifying an existing truck, which requires more sponsors and/or investors.
In the future Bob will also be manufacturing aerodynamic kits for existing tractor trailer trucks using side skirts and other modifications.
For more information about the truck and to follow its progress, visit airflowtruck.com
Watch the video for a full explanation of the process and science behind the aerodynamics.
Curious about the 3D printed model? Check out the prototype video:
