Press Releases
Economy Trailer Fairing Offers Fastest Fit
Tampa, Fl., February 7, 2011
Laydon Composites, the company that has been producing trailer skirt fairings longer than any other, announces the introduction of a low-cost solution that can be fitted to a trailer in an hour, minimizing downtime and providing fleets with a truly economical way to comply with trailer fuel saving regulations. The new Hybrid TrailerSkirt™ was introduced at the spring Technology and Maintenance Council meeting in Tampa, Fl.
Laydon has partnered with Crane Composites to re-design its EPA SmartWay-certified advanced aerodynamic Hybrid TrailerSkirt™. Crane Composites (the industry’s leading and oldest manufacturer of flat sheet composite panels for the trailer industry) designed a purpose-built panel specific for trailer aerodynamics. Complementing the panels, Laydon has designed an injection moulded and patent–pending “mono clamp” and strut. The design uses state of the art CAD modeling and FEA (finite element analysis) to stress test the design and the material in all temperatures, whether extreme heat or cold. The unique design means a two-man team can mount the fairings in an hour.
“We’ve been listening to our customers and implementing what they want; inexpensive, easy and fast to install, lightweight, flexible enough to withstand everyday abuse and most importantly, fuel efficient,” said Andy Acott, Sales Manager, of the 17 year-old company. Laydon Composites, Ltd. (LCL) started in 1994. Before that, LCL president Brian Layfield owned Airshield, formerly Rudkin-Wiley.
Fast Fit Trailer Skirts
“We have designed an extremely quick way to install skirts with our new “mono clamp” one bolt flexible mounting strut. Two people can install a complete set of skirts for a 53ft trailer in around one hour.”
The patent-pending flexible spring is made from woven fibreglass, polypropylene where the fibreglass strands are orientated at Zero, 90 & 45 degrees. This allows a higher level of stress without failure than any other composite strut on the market and the spring is pre tensioned for added strength. Laydon has cycled the flexible spring beyond the breaking point of other skirt supports from competitive manufacturers by over 20,000 cycles.
The skirt panels are designed to match the strut durability, while being light and able to move with the struts. “Going in, we had an extremely long “wish list” of what the side skirt panel must be capable of doing,” said Acott. “Crane’s engineering experts managed to “tick all the boxes” and we’re proud to offer a panel that not only is incredibly strong but will bend and move with the flexible spring. It also had to be lightweight, UV resistant and be the lowest cost per square foot in this industry. Crane not only brings 50 years of manufacturing experience but also offers incredibly fast delivery times -- usually in a few weeks unlike our competitors who can wait more than three months for material to be delivered.”
The California Air Resources Board rules mandate trailer aerodynamics on all 2011 model-year 53 ft trailers and sets a phase-in period for older trailers. Demand for trailer skirting is rising sharply and Laydon predicts the trailer skirt retrofit business will be much larger than new trailer sales. One of the many difficulties that fleets and O/O’s face is finding time to implement the necessary upgrades which means “down time” for their equipment on top of the cost to buy the devices. ”Laydon’s new Hybrid TrailerSkirt™ offers the shortest installation time and the lowest “installed cost” resulting in the fastest ROI. This revolutionary design allows truckers to perform the installation themselves or have their local dealer install in the time it takes to have a cup of coffee,” said Acott.
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