Technology

Volvo Trucks is working to help fight COVID-19 by using its 3D printing capabilities–made for producing truck parts–to create personal protective equipment.

“We contacted LewisGale [Hospital] three or four weeks ago at the beginning of this and asked them if there was anything they would anticipate needing in the future if things get too sour in our area,” said Franky Marchand, Volvo Truck Plant Manager and VP. “First, they said everything was good, but after further consideration, asked us if we could make some face shields.”

Cone Health, a healthcare provider network with over 100 locations, asked Volvo if it would be able to help procure PPE for its workers to be prepared for the pandemic’s peak within its hospitals.

Originally, Marchand began searching for face shields to buy and then donate, but wasn’t able to secure a large enough number of the PPE. He then found a way for the company to obtain enough clear Plexiglas to start producing its own face shields.

“We put our 3D printers to work to make the piece that attaches to [the visor],” Marchand said. “So, we [tried] a couple of different styles to see, ‘OK, that works.’ An advantage of 3D printing is that you can fail fast, very fast. That way, you can quickly get to a solution.”

Chairman of Volvo Group North America and president of Mack Trucks, Martin Weissburg, said this pandemic has shown how the company can do its part in a national emergency.

“I’ve been a business leader for more than 25 years, and I’ve been through a variety of crises, and [have] never seen one like this,” he said. “If we can build the best trucks and power systems in the industry, we can sure help out with some plastic parts for face masks.”

After securing the materials for the plastic shields, the company had to next develop ear guards for the face shields’ wearability.

“That’s something we started to figure out,” Marchand explained. “You hear those terrible stories about the nurses and doctors who are wearing those masks more than normal. The typical mask attaches with a piece of elastic behind the ears; it gets painful to wear that every day. So, some of our people made a piece that takes the tension out from behind your head and [connects] the two pieces of elastic, and not through your ears.”

To produce the face shields, a 3D printer uses laser technology along with a computer design to create a 3D object from a liquid photopolymer. The object is then produced from the bottom up by each individual micrometer layer–this is how the printer produces its face shields.

Additionally, some employees have been able to utilize their 3D printers at home to make the “ear savers” explained by Marchand. A home printer can create about 70 of these adjustable clips–which take the stress of the mask’s ear loops off a wearer’s ear–in about four hours.

Volvo’s main 3D printer has been in use 24/7 to create the plastic visors that are then attached to the plastic shields. The machine can only make about 24 visors a day, so Fargeon has been working around the clock to keep the printer running smoothly.

“We were able to shift some of our production tools and start producing,” said Steve Barnhardt, Volvo’s chief engineer. “When you say people are really in need, it’s really easy to get people motivated to work on this.”

Volvo has now produced hundreds of these face shields, making about 33 every day.

“Some companies you see, they’ve made thousands of [face shields],” Marchand said. “Those are typically the disposable ones, which are the ones that the hospital usually gets. Of course, we didn’t know what exactly the hospital needed. They normally get the disposable facial. Those are made to be cheap enough to be disposable, because they generally don’t like to reuse them. [Our face shield] allows them to not have to buy some every day, especially while their supply chain is in trouble.”

Volvo’s face shields also provide more overall protection than many others.

“As they tested it, they found one model that they liked better than the rest because it was enclosed on top, so that it feels a little heavier, but it gives them that extra protection from the top, and that’s what they’ve asked for,” Marchand explained further. “I’m told the local EMS and fire departments like them a lot.”

Cone Health is now at capacity for these face shields, according to Mary Beth Halprin, vice president of PR and corporate affairs for Volvo, after these influx of donations. Now, Volvo is continuing its effort by creating PPE for other health care facilities, as well as giving its shields to Volvo employees.

Trucking technology has become more prevalent throughout the industry, with carriers wondering how truckers will adapt to the new automated changes and often worrying about what will happen should a system malfunction. Waste management trucking companies, however, have recently expressed different concerns.

“There’s literally no real estate left inside the truck,” said president and owner of Leck Waste Services, Jason Leck.

As vehicle technology continues to advance, waste truck drivers and their carriers are having to implement many new systems. In doing so, these truckers are also fighting for their safety.

Leck Waste Services out of Ivyland, Pennsylvania, for example, has seen its drivers in all its collection vehicles, including front loaders and fully automated trucks, working to learn their way around advanced technological systems and software. Leck’s trucks have begun to utilize fleet management software from Soft-Pak, which aims to make GPS tracking, mapping, and route productivity features more accessible; arm-mounted digital scales from Air-Weigh; and 3rd Eye, a camera system by Dover which works to document both in-cab and external events in an effort to improve fleet operation safety.

However, while this tech may help carriers to boost profitability and efficiency, it has also brought its challenges.

“In a conventional truck, there seems to be a little bit more cab space, but when you move into the cab design in a front loader or even a semi-automated or fully automated collection truck, with all the control panels that are installed inside the cab, there’s very limited space,” explained Leck. “Then, when you start adding additional technology and mounting tablets and driver-facing cameras, we’re starting to fight for real estate.”

In other words, drivers have no room in the cab. Another safety hazard at hand, according to Leck, is that the more technology present in a cab that requires its own display screen, the more logistical issues and distraction possibilities come into play.

“Accidents typically happen when your driver has to stop what he’s doing in the process of servicing something to do something in the cab, and then he goes back to what he’s doing and starts to drive again,” said Leck. “Are we creating an issue where we require drivers to be touching or looking at tablets every time they service an account?”

The topic of in-cab safety has also brought to the attention of the National Waste and Recycling Association’s safety committee other cab layout issues and their effects on drivers. NWRA’s chief of staff and vice president of safety and standards, Kirk Sander, said that one prominent example is the parking brake, which is often not placed well enough for newer truckers to easily pay attention to–especially when they’ve been used to operating automatic vehicles.

“I think technology is the best way to start the conversation, but I think technology is just a piece of the conversation of what the cab layout should look like,” said Sander.

Fortunately, some possible solutions have come to light during panel discussions on this topic. A conversation at WasteExpo was especially helpful when experts began explaining the needs within the industry to create a standard design for truck cabs that could result from a truck manufacturer and technology solutions provider collaboration, said Leck.

These groups could potentially create a new and more efficient way to use fleet management software and safety systems within truck cabs. Leck said the panel at the convention agreed that an industry trade association–like the NWRA–developing a new in-cab design standard “for how [manufacturers and software providers] share that space” would be the best solution.

“We need the data and information to be able to run our business, but we need to do it in a safe way,” said Leck.

WasteExpo’s panel discussed the possibility of implementing a “central device” in the cab for a driver to more easily access multiple applications at a time, as well as the benefits of dedicating one in-dash location for the tablet that would be easily reachable and able to display all applications.

“Our thought is there is this ability for all these technologies and routing software to be utilized on one tablet in the vehicle that is designed to be placed in a certain location for the driver in a user-friendly area,” Leck explained. “All the software that’s being developed should have to be able to work on that system that the driver could use. It would be cleaner, easier, and safer if all those things didn’t have to be independently installed in the cab.”

After last year’s GPS rollover on April 6th, the extent to which many carriers lean on technology became evident. The GPS update event, which takes place around every 20 years, brought to light the trucking industry’s possibility of experiencing widespread tech malfunctions–and the large problems those can easily cause for businesses.

The update connects to the system’s 10-digit format. Once it runs out of 10 binary digits, it must undergo a large-scale update.

“We don’t hear many questions from fleets that we work with on the concern of a network-wide outage,” said Deryk Powell, president of Velociti. “The GPS rollover event heightened the awareness of that for some fleets–it’s absolutely a concern.”

Smaller tech interruptions can be just as disruptive.

“Systems go down occasionally,” said founder of C.J. Driscoll & Associations, Clem Driscoll. “A particular telematics provider may have its servers go down. It doesn’t happen often..but it does happen from time to time. That can be an issue.”

Geotab commercial vehicle solutions vice president Scott Sutarik agrees. He said technology progression is vital in regards to safety improvement, even at the risk of systems going down. This is true, he explained, across all tech use–from electronic logging device compliance, safety camera systems, and radio frequency identification to fuel tax reporting, cargo sensors, and electronic door locks.

These updates will only continue across all technology, said Greentree Advisors LLC founder Ken Davis. As we see more manufacturers entering the industry with electric or hydrogen fuel cell-powered vehicles, he believes that 25 percent of the global vehicle market will be electric by 2030–a trend we will see among commercial vehicles as Class 5 to 6 vehicles lean toward electric operation as well.

“Trucking does depend on GPS a lot, but it is generally a very reliable system,” said Driscoll. “The U.S. military depends on it. It’s used for all kinds of commercial and government applications. There can be problems, but they are not very common.”

Supporters of electric commercial vehicles note that current trucks with internal combustion engines cost 30% more than those electrically powered. There are, however, worries around charging infrastructure development and grid capability, as electric vehicle demand is pushed forward by regulation and subsidies.

Although this tech brings innovative benefits to the industry, Powell also explained that disruptions to service can impact the bottom line of a carrier, thus negatively affecting its business overall.

“When you’re talking about drivers having to revert back to paper logs [in the event of a disruption], as an example, it’s a real issue for the industry,” he said “There is a mandate around the repair of ELDs. You have eight days to get a broken ELD repaired. That’s a real issue for fleets.” He also explained that many drivers–especially those new to the industry–could possibly have zero paper log experience.

It would, however, be much easier for truckers to revert temporarily to logging manually than it would be for smaller fleets using TMS systems to have to fall back on manual processes, noted McLeod Software marketing vice president Mark Cubine.

“Those examples are good wake-up calls for the vulnerability of technology,” he said. “Fortunately, in the case of driver’s logs, there is a paper paradigm that an individual driver could go back to.”

Currently, asset managers include mobility providers, said Davis. As services move toward digital reliance, mobility services take the place of financing, maintenance, storage, parking, and ownership. Availability is extremely vital with this mobility, he explained.

“I think the danger is more–in terms of losing functionality of ELDs and fleet management–it’s more [about] individual systems that could have hardware or software failures,” said Driscoll. “I think it’s more in the area of specific devices and specific solutions.”

The way to best combat these large-scale issues? Researching while investing in new carrier technology, said Sutarik.

“Companies that do not share a similar focus on engineering and continuous innovation, and instead accumulate legacy IT debt by focusing their efforts on keeping old and outdated systems working, are made more vulnerable to threats such as downtime,” he explained.

The potential for progress and success will always outweigh the risks, though. Industry professionals like Davis reiterate that staying up-to-date as new technologies grow in development is the best way to stay ahead of important opportunities as they arise throughout the industry.