busride maintenance october 2014
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The exclusive maintenance resource for the transit and motorcoach industry.TRANSCRIPT
the exclusive maintenance resource for the transit and motorcoach industry
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Rotary lifts safety standards p5
Zero-emission propulsion
cuts costs p6
PM:Failure is not an option p4
2 BusRidE mainTEnanCE | octoBer.2014 busridemaintenance.com
Vol. 04 • No. 10
Publisher / Editor in Chief Steve Kane
Group PublisherSali T. Williams
Executive Editor David Hubbard
EditorRichard Tackett
Art DirectorStephen Gamble
Production Coordinator Ching In Hsu
Accountant Fred Valdez
POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to:
BUSRide Magazine4742 North 24th Street, Suite 340
Phoenix, Arizona 85016Phone: (602) 265-7600
Fax: (602) 277-7588 busridemaintenance.com
A publication of:
BUS industry SAFETY council
From The eDITor
PM: What is the cost of doing nothing? By Don Leidy and Mark Ellis
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Cut emissions and cut costs Creative Coach Works’ Zero Emission Propulsion System cuts maintenance and fuel costs
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Products and Services
From the Editor
Departments
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In late August, the City of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, announced that it would not have sufficient buses available to run full transit service starting
September 2. One reason: a backlog of fleet maintenance due to Saskatoon Transit’s inability to attract mechanics. Bob Howe, director of Saskatoon Transit, said in a statement that searching for vacant journeyman mechanics has been tough with the agency’s advertised 2012 wage rates. He added that the lack of a new collective agreement is hampering labor stability.
The city is suspending or delaying a number of services, including suspending extra buses during peak travel times for popular transit routes.
Saskatoon Transit’s situation is dire, but not unique. It illustrates that what happens in the garage has obvious implications to the community at-large. In Saskatoon’s case, labor and wages are the underlying causes for a large backlog. In other garages a large backlog might result from mismanaged work requests, inefficient preventive maintenance or equipment outages. All of these situations require a unique solution, but they all have the same negative cumulative effect on an agency’s entire operation. A mismanaged backlog and an efficient maintenance operation are mutually exclusive.
This issue of BUSRide Maintenance explores some of these problems that can start in the garage but spread throughout an agency. Experts offer key advice and best practices on preventive maintenance, workplace standards and equipment upkeep – all essential in making sure the garage isn’t overwhelmed.
Richard TackettEditorBUSRide Magazine
5Lifting up standards Rotary Lift’s Mach™ series speeds up the lifting process
On the cover:
Maintenance backlogs have far-reaching consequences
ON THE COVER: Photo by Jerry Blow Architectural Photography. Paul Stewart, AIA, Williard Stewart Caliendo Architects, PA
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PRODUCTS & SERVICES
ARI-HETRA introduces heavy-duty drum and disc latheARI-HETRA’s WS-BL2000 Heavy-Duty Drum and Disc Lathe produces an evenly cut drum, rotor or flywheel. The extra-large 60 mm diameter arbor and oversized spindle dampens vibrations, allowing it to work without the use of a tailstock - even for dual wheels with the drum attached. Advanced functions include powered in/out and left/right table motion, continuous or intermittent variable feed in both working directions (to avoid spiral effect) and spindle rotation speed (20-120 RPMs) controlled by a dial. The WS-BL2000 variable spindle speed helps control acceleration and deceleration - a useful function when turning heavy brake components.
ARI-HETRAManassas, VA
Voith increases power and reduces fuel consumptionVoith’s two-stage air compressors offer a range of benefits to commercial vehicle operators including a high degree of energy efficiency, low-emissions, reduced weight and longer service intervals. The intercooler’s functioning principle ensures a decrease in power consumption during transport, thus saving fuel. With the light-weight aluminum construction, this model is roughly 7 kg lighter than conventional single-stage compressors, which ensures further reductions in fuel consumption. Another advantage of this compression is that it reduces the mechanical strain on pressurized components, thus extending the lifetime.
Voith Turbo GmbH & Co.Heidenheim, Germany
IPA presents the Four-Tire Inflation/Equalizer SystemEngineered for maximum air volume and the highest possible accuracy, IPA says the Four-Tire Inflation/Equalizer System ensures repeatable and consistent tire inflation for every shop bay. It introduces a new, fast and efficient method to accurately read and inflate tire pressure on multiple tires at the same time. When added to PM and Safety lane procedures, this tire inflation system provides a solution to maximize fuel mileage, extend tread life and reduce the risk of blowouts.
Innovative Products of AmericaWoodstock, NY
Stertil-Koni ships ST 1085 Mobile Column Lifts with standard adjustable forksStertil-Koni announced that adjustable forks now come standard on the recently introduced ST 1085 Mobile Column Lifts, in both standard and wide fork models. Previously, fixed forks were standard and adjustable was an option. The ST 1085 features a lifting capacity of 18,500 pounds per column. It also features the Multi Master System, equipped with a control box on each individual column. In that way, lifting columns can be operated individually, in pairs or a complete set with the touch of a single button. What’s more, all columns are interchangeable, so they can be used at multiple locations.
Stertil-Koni USAStevensville, MD
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MaintenanceFacility Design
Maintenance Design Group completed a facility maintenance plan for Capital Area Transit’s Raleigh, NC, maintenance facility.
Photo by Jerry Blow Architectural Photography. Architecture by Williard Stewart Caliendo Architects, PA.
PM: What is the cost of doing nothing?By Don Leidy and Mark Ellis
Money talks, and when a public entity discovers how much time, energy and money it can save with a comprehensive facility maintenance plan, money practically screams. However, properly and vigilantly conducted facility maintenance is not just about saving money. A comprehensive facility maintenance plan also extends the functional life of building systems and equipment. Unfortunately, not everyone quite understands that perspective.
No one would ever dream of buying a vehicle — a personal car or an agency’s bus — and running it for 20 years without ever changing the oil. Similarly, the facility itself requires the same attention to preventive maintenance (PM) as does the fleet. The rationale is to increase the overall life of a facility and its equipment by catching potential problems before they require emergency repair —reactive maintenance. Simply put, it is more cost effective to repair than to replace.
Maintenance plans save expenses
From tightening belts to cleaning housings, greasing bearings to checking weatherproofing, practically every element of a facility requires some degree of regular attention. A comprehensive, work order-driven PM schedule provides continuous regularly scheduled service to the facility and the equipment it houses.
PM work orders, developed by facility maintenance experts from manufacturers’ operations and maintenance manuals along with architectural and engineering specifications for the building and its elements, provide the basis of an optimized maintenance schedule. Rotational scheduling and an easy-to-apply work-order methodology makes it much easier to distribute the daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annual and annual tasks when they come due.
The true value of PM is best seen in specific scenarios. Consider a vehicle washer. One of the most expensive and maintenance-intensive pieces of equipment, vehicle washers can cost up to $250,000 to purchase and install. A manufacturer-supplied written checklist dictates daily preventive maintenance required to properly maintain this complex and completely automated machine. That maintenance checklist must be completed, dated, and signed every day, proving that the maintenance work was done. The manufacturer knows that without this maintenance, it cannot guarantee the machine’s effectiveness and reliability. That is precisely why manufacturers provide a written checklist.
Make PM a priority
PM for bus facilities has not always been a priority, though it was always included in the FTA’s triennial review. The recent push to bring public infrastructure into a state of good repair has upped the importance of asset management and preventive maintenance.
The mission statement of nearly every transportation company is to get safe, clean buses on the street to move people from point A to point B. Only recently was the connection made between cost-effective reliable service and asset management/facility maintenance. This is different today because we have learned the value that a good facility PM program creates.
Driven by new technology
As technology progresses, so too does preventive maintenance technology. With more and more operations and maintenance manuals arriving on CD-ROM, PM experts can now quickly and easily incorporate that information into the PM plan. Generating work orders and PM schedules using advanced PM software, PM specialists now make state-of-the-art, computerized PM management widely available to all owners — basically anyone willing to institute a PM plan. But technology doesn’t stop there.
A basic level of facility maintenance planning is essential to maintain a primary level of readiness. Advancing to the more sophisticated levels of maintenance all depends on the facility and the equipment being maintained. Higher levels of PM become much more common where the facility and equipment is more advanced.
What is most important is making the leap from reactive maintenance to the first level of preventive maintenance. After that, refinements to implement predictive maintenance practices progress naturally to the asset management process.
As hard as it is to believe, many maintenance facilities still have no PM plan in place. But this is changing by the day as more decision makers around the country see the tremendous value and return that PM provides. PM programs only grow in popularity as agencies continue to implement plans that extend the lives of their facilities.
Don Leidy is managing principal and Mark Ellis is Central Region manager for Maintenance Design Group (Denver, Houston, Baltimore, Los Angeles) – a recognized leader in bus and motorcoach maintenance facility design. They have been preparing facility maintenance plans for over 30 years. To learn more about their capabilities and to gain valuable insights and information, please visit www.maintenancedesigngroup.com.
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Lifting upstandardsRotary Lift’s Mach™ series speeds up the lifting process
rotary Lift, madison, IN, says its mach™ series mobile column lift provides unobstructed access to the underside of a vehicle.
While rise and descent times are important numbers to consider when selecting a vehicle lift, other features that speed up the setup process can have an equally significant impact on boosting shop productivity. Rotary says the Mach series mobile column lifts not only raise vehicles faster than comparable mobile column lifts, but they are also built to maximize operator efficiency and reduce downtime.
“When designing the Mach series of mobile column lifts, we studied every step of a typical technician’s setup process and found ways to save valuable time,” said Doug Spiller, heavy-duty product manager for Rotary Lift, in a statement. “The features that make the lifts so easy to use, when combined with their fast rise times, can improve technician productivity by more than 30 percent. That means shops using Mach mobile column lifts will be able to complete more jobs in a day than they would if they used other lifts.”
Each column in a Mach series mobile column lift is equipped with identical patent-pending controls, so the technician can operate the entire lift from the column that is most convenient. The easy-to-understand control panel features an intuitive graphic layout of the column setup with a vehicle illustrated for reference. When setting up the lift, the technician simply positions a column, turns it on and
presses the button that corresponds to the column’s position on the control graphic. LEDs show the power, synchronization and status of each column. When all LEDs are green, it means the columns are synchronized and ready for lifting. There is no RFID wand to lose or complicated programming procedure to memorize.
“Rotary Lift Mach series mobile column lifts provide unobstructed access to the underside of the vehicle to allow technicians to work while standing,” Spiller said. “This enables them to access frame-mounted components more comfortably and complete jobs more efficiently.”
Rotary Lift Mach series mobile column lifts are available with capacities of 13,000 pounds or 18,000 pounds per column. They can be ordered in sets of two, four, six or eight columns, so customers can buy the right amount of capacity for the vehicles they service.
Patented, intuitive controls are located on each column, so the technician can operate the lift from whichever corner of the vehicle is most convenient. Automatic steering systems that raise and lower without the need for pumping further reduce setup time. Mach lifts are available with a quick-connect horseshoe wiring or wireless.
Since they do not need to be installed in the ground, Mach series mobile column lifts can be seamlessly added to any shop and put into immediate use. For easy maintenance, the lifts feature inverted hydraulic cylinders that keep the chrome piston
rod shielded from debris and damage.
Mach series mobile column lifts are available with capacities of 13,000 pounds or 18,000 pounds per column.
Each column in a Mach series mobile column lift is equipped with identical patent-pending controls.
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The ZEPS remanufactured transit bus with the Gen 2 system debuted in 2013, with Complete Coach Works delivering the bus to Ben Franklin Transit.
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Retrofitting company Complete Coach Works (CCW), Riverside, CA, says its all-electric Zero Emission Propulsion System (ZEPS) and ZEPS-equipped transit bus will save customers hundreds of thousands in fuel and maintenance costs over the life of the vehicle.
The ZEPS remanufactured transit bus, with its Gen 1 system, debuted in 2012. Gen 2 followed just over a year later, with Complete Coach Works delivering buses to Ben Franklin Transit, Kennewick, WA, the University of Utah, operated by the Utah Transit Authority, and WAVE. The Gen 3 version of the ZEPS system is currently in production and will be on the streets shortly with 21 units being delivered to IndyGo.
“ZEPS is primarily a 100 percent battery-electric drive system that’s viable for many heavy-duty applications,” says Justin Scalzi, CCW’s EV sales manager. “The fact that we’re in the transit industry obviously led us to put the ZEPS system into a remanufactured bus first, but what we really want to show is that the ZEPS system is a stand-alone zero-emission propulsion system that is ready for integration into the heavy-duty market.”
Scalzi says that the current ZEPS product was built to run in existing transit operations. Based on CCW’s research, it has been determined that approximately 80 percent of existing American transit routes fall below 120 miles in length. The company wanted to achieve a similar range for the ZEPS product so that agencies could put the 100 percent battery-electric drive system into an existing fleet with minimal route changes.
“Agencies needing to reroute because their electric buses cannot do the job on a single charge, that is an issue,” he says. “Our bus can plug into 80 percent of all U.S. transit systems and run the route just like a traditional bus.”
CCW has designed a battery pack based on 18650 small cells to fuel the system; using high energy density lithium ion NMC battery
The ZEPS product uses high energy density lithium ion NMC battery packs, enabling a reduction in battery pack weight and overall vehicle weight.
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lithium ion NMC battery packs enable reduction in battery pack weight. The Gen 3 electric bus battery packs have an energy density of 190Wh/kg, a 58 percent improvement over the Gen 2’s 120Wh/kg. CCW says the energy density improvement enabled an increase in battery energy from 242kWh to 311kWh while also reducing the pack’s weight.
On the remanufactured bus, that weight makes all the difference.
“The weight of our ZEPS prepared bus is similar to OEM weight with our current battery pack,” Scalzi says. “The batteries are integrated into the chassis so that we get similar weight distribution as OEM buses.”
Maintenance improvements
Scalzi says ZEPS maintenance advantages are numerous. Preventative maintenance inspections are obviously different, with no traditional engine or transmission to speak of.
“With that, you take away all of the costs of oil changes, all of the preventative maintenance inspections related to the engine and transmission and all of the cost associated with the filters, oils and disposal fees of the drivetrain.”
CCW estimates that maintenance costs on a diesel bus are five times that of the ZEPS remanufactured transit bus. In addition, the company says the system’s reliability will reduce failures and increase maintenance efficiency.
Fuel savings
In a life cycle cost comparison of a diesel and electric bus (with data from the EPA), CCW calculates that an agency’s total annual cost of fuel per bus will be reduced by over 70 percent with electric propulsion. With a 12-year life cycle cost calculation, total lifetime cost savings over a diesel bus are more than 60 percent (over $340,000).
CCW estimates the ZEPs remanufactured bus provides the MPG equivalent of 21.2 (using the EPA’s MPG equivalent formula), four times more efficient than diesel buses.
“You pay about 80 cents per mile running diesel, and with electric you’re paying about 24 cents per mile,” Scalzi says. “Our system has a realistic range of 130-150 miles depending on the driver and geography, and we’re charging during off-peak hours because the vehicle can run for an entire day.”
Scalzi estimates that the infrastructure required for charging the system is between $8,000 and $10,000.
Advantages of a remanufactured bus
Because CCW has been in the remanufacturing business for nearly 30 years, the company’s ZEPS bus represents an incredibly green operation. The aforementioned lack of engine oil, transmission fluid, filters and emission control equipment means less waste in equipment disposal. Furthermore, CCW says a single ZEPS bus conserves more than 10,000 pounds of ferrous metals.
“A recycled bus reduces landfill pollution, it conserves resources, and it’s a fraction of the cost of a new bus,” Scalzi says. “Not only are you going 100 percent emission-free by running an electric bus, you’re going even greener by reducing the amount of landfill and saving raw materials.”
The ZEPS product and ZEPS transit bus were built to run in existing transit operations, with no need to reroute.
All-electric transit buses run at a quieter, smoother clip than their diesel-powered counterparts.
CCW estimates that maintenance costs on a diesel bus are five times that of ZEPS remanufactured transit bus.
