Title: Reliability engineering in the commercial road vehicle industry

Authors: T. Farkas, P. Michelberger, G. Barta

Addresses: Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Transport, Technical University of Budapest, Budapest. ' Professor, Dr., Faculty of Transport, Technical University of Budapest, Budapest. ' Associate Professor, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Budapest, Budapest

Abstract: Vehicle manufacturers are generally required to produce vehicles with: adequate operating characteristics; minimal failures and breakdowns; possible low demand on vehicle maintenance; easy and fast relief of failures; economical recovery of materials from scrap; to keep in mind circumstances peculiar to the given user; as low life cycle cost as possible; feasibility of economical manufacture of uniform quality; prevalence of ergonomic and aesthetic aspects; to meet safety and environmental specifications; and to respect trade law prescriptions. The efficiency of measures to better meet various demands is different, and so is the return on relevant cost excesses. The likelihood of the most favourable change at a given expense in a given field has to be pondered. Reliability investigations yield information on the effect of various measures, and data for assessing efficiency. Experience shows that designers of commercial vehicles have to design, in addition to the construction and the manufacturing technology, also the operation, in order to increase vehicle reliability at as small a cost excess as possible. This requires procedures different from those in passenger car manufacture and in series production of trucks.

Keywords: reliability planning; commercial vehicles; operation reliability tests; vehicle operation reliability; vehicle design.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVD.1986.061186

International Journal of Vehicle Design, 1986 Vol.7 No.5/6, pp.344 - 355

Published online: 25 May 2014 *

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