A new platform needed to be designed into the Kenworth K220 to enable advanced safety and other items to be included in new technology in the Truck of the Year Australasia.
The K220 created a platform with which Kenworth could access the latest technology. As time evolves, the systems get better, the software gets more advanced and the hardware which drives the software gets more capable.
“It’s just greater depth of quality in executing those things that the K220 enables,” says Brad May, Paccar Australia Chief Engineer. “From a compliance point of view, it doesn’t make a difference, but as far as offering the very best and the latest of everything, that’s probably the main part of the K220 story, the electrical architecture.”
At the start of the program the team didn’t know that AEBS would become standard. Even the date for mandating Euro 6 was uncertain at that point.
“We knew the Cummins X15 Euro 6 engine was coming, but there was a separate project to validate them and put millions of miles on them,” says Ross Cureton, Director of Product Planning – PACCAR Australia. “Between when we started the K220 planning, and when we launched it, the Eaton Endurant transmission emerged. It wasn’t known about at the start, but we had the flexibility to adopt that transmission, which has become a cornerstone of the appeal for the customer. We saw it and knew we needed to integrate that into this project, even though it wasn’t part of the original plan.
“As your understanding of a new product like that transmission emerges and as you get greater confidence and you validate it, you start to look at whether we still offer Ultrashift or do we actually supersede it. We need to look at it from a customer point of view. Also, because we manufacture things, we have to make decisions about what inventory we hold, what products we offer, how complex our manufacturing plant has to be.”
A lot of the new technology which was being looked at during this process does need a state-of-the-art electronic architecture to integrate all of the systems and ensure the right data is in the right place at the right time.
“I would say the electrical architecture is a foundational thing you have to decide upon and commit to at the beginning,” says Ross. “These days it’s one of a few primary decisions you must make and then you go from there.”
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