Corrosion resistant and lightweight, aluminum is ideal for hauling goods cross country. Trailers made from aluminum may cost more than steel ones, but users can haul more weight in them and spend less on maintenance. Since 2009, demand for lightweight trailers has nearly tripled.
In Huntsville, Tennessee, Great Dane Trailers wanted to tap into that market with a new all-aluminum trailer and boost production of parts for the combination steel-and-aluminum model.
Senior Manufacturing Engineer Howard Reeve says conditions called for new equipment. “People like them because they don’t rust, and they weigh less. So you can carry more weight on them. We’re trying to have greater market penetration in aluminum trailers, so we needed more capacity. Sales wanted greater capacity to fill orders by large customers.”
Despite high-profile aluminum use in passenger vehicles, such as Ford’s F-150 or Chevrolet’s Bolt EV electric car, the fastest-growing user of the lightweight metal in ground transportation has come from the commercial side. Since 2009, aluminum shipments to trailer and semitrailer producers have grown at a 19.7% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) – far exceeding the 14.8% CAGR posted by cars and light trucks and the 13.5% CAGR noted for all ground transportation by the Aluminum Association trade group.
The plant had been using an aluminum milling machine designed to make screen doors to machine parts for the combination trailers, and a small volume of all-aluminum parts. However, Great Dane engineers had been looking for the proper machine for a long time. The milling machine was the tool they had, not the tool they needed, and Reeve says that the old, high-maintenance machine caused lots of problems.
Programmable logic controllers (PLCs) used a German-language operating system that employees didn’t understand. When the PLCs failed, replacing them required weeks to receive shipments. To avoid lengthy downtime, Great Dane had to stock several spares.
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From the January/February 2017 issue of Today’s Motor Vehicles.