Development of a subframe for 20 feet ISO containers on rigid trucks

Abstract

This report presents the achievements of the Master Thesis Work that has made at Volvo Truck Corporation. The task consists in developing a subframe that will be fitted on a rigid truck able to carry 20 feet ISO-Containers. The main purpose of the subframe is to support the truck chassis while attaching the container by lock members mounted on the subframe. The design criteria for the subframe are that the construction should prevent rattling, limit high torsion to the chassis, and withstand the forces created from a fully loaded container. The result of the thesis consists in four different solutions, two of which grew from a totally new design, while the other two are based on design ideas from an already existing solution used at Volvo Trucks for carrying swap bodies. The recommendation for the future is to choose for further develop the design concept based on the existing solution for swap bodies as a first step. In the next phase the concept based on totally new design should be fully developed and analysed from manufacturing aspects.