Bulldog

Vol. 3 2015

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2 0 | BULLDOG | 2 0 1 5 V 3 ON EQUIPMENT W ith the addition of an axle pro- duction line at its Hagerstown, Md., facility earlier this year, Mack Trucks is now building engines, transmissions and drive axles under one roof, a move Stephen Roy, president of Mack Trucks North America, says demonstrates commitment to integrated powertrain design. "Bringing axle production to Hagerstown allows us to oversee the manufacturing pro- cess — from design to assembly — and deliver the high-quality components our cus- tomers depend on," Roy said when the new axle line was inaugurated in mid-October. This is a key time to bring axle production in house, given the importance of down- speeding and fuel efficiency to the trucking industry today, and the growing focus on greenhouse gas emissions, says Stu Russoli, Mack highway and powertrain product mar- keting manager. "If we can save our customers money at the pump, we lower the total cost of owner- ship and create value," Russoli says. "As we develop new, faster rear-axle ratios, it's key to have them produced in our plant where the testing is done and where the engineers are based." Mack has assembled powertrain compo- nents at the Hagerstown plant since 1961. The new line, which brought assembly of all Mack ® heavy-duty drive axles and machining of Mack carrier housings to the facility, was part of a $30 million investment. This investment also funded upgrades to the engine-assembly process and centraliza- tion of aftermarket core warehousing operations. Unique axle elements enhance performance Production began on the new axle line in July. Unique features of Mack proprietary drive axles include a top load design and spiral bevel gears. These attributes work together to deliver superior durability and increased fuel efficiency. According to Russoli, the top-mounted car- riers used on Mack axles allow the driveline to connect directly into the front of the carrier, while providing a straight path for the inter- axle driveline to the rear-drive axle. Designs from other axle manufacturers have a 3 to 8 degree angle for the interaxle driveline, which creates a parasitic loss and reduces effi- ciency by 5-20 percent. The spiral bevel gears and helical gears Mack uses are 3-15 percent more efficient than industry-standard hypoid gears, while Mack's power divider is active only when needed, which also increases efficiency. "Mack's whole powertrain is designed to most efficiently deliver the power from the engine to the where the rubber meets the road," says Russoli. For even greater fuel efficiency, customers can spec Mack proprietary axles in combina- tion with the Super Econodyne powertrain package. Super Econodyne integrates the Mack mDRIVE™ automated manual trans- mission, a Mack MP7 ® or MP8 ® engine and Mack's custom software. The combination of Mack proprietary axles and Super Econodyne is available on Mack Pinnacle™ highway Integrating production of an integrated powertrain Mack adds axle production line to the Hagerstown, Maryland, plant that manufactures all its heavy-duty diesel engines and transmissions

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