Bloomfield, CT, USA – Jacobs Vehicle Systems®, the world’s leading supplier of heavy-duty engine retarding and valve actuation solutions, announced today that Jen Tran, New Technology project engineer, will be presenting technical paper SAE 2012-01-0814, titled: Recovering Energy from Shock Absorber Motion on Heavy Duty Commercial Vehicles.

This paper provides an example of the Open Innovation approach Jacobs is applying to researching new technologies relative to our core competencies and adjacent core markets.


The GenShock™ system offers the potential for active variable damping control for semi-active ride control, improved driver comfort, and rollover mitigation, while recovering energy in electrical form that would normally be dissipated as heat in conventional “shock absorbers” or suspension dampers. Heavy Duty vehicles, due to their large mass, offer some of the best opportunities for energy recovery, effectively unloading a vehicle’s alternator, and thereby avoiding burning additional fuel to power the vehicle’s electrical systems.


Jacobs, in cooperation with Open Innovation partner Levant Power, is seeking to commercialize this new type of vehicle system for Heavy Duty vehicles of all types, specifically for On-Highway trucks. Several prototype systems are currently in operation. This technology is seen as being available in the near term.


On April 25th, 2012, Jacobs will present this new technology at the SAE 2012 World Congress, Detroit, MI, in the “Vehicle Electrification Strategies for Sustainability” session at 11:00 a.m. Following the presentation, at 1 p.m., representatives from Jacobs and Levant Power will be available at SAE demo booths to show hardware and explain GenShock™ functionality in more detail.

 

 


About Jacobs Vehicle Systems:
Jacobs Vehicle Systems is headquartered in Bloomfield, Conn., where it has a 260,000 square foot design, testing and manufacturing facility, with support sites in Europe, Japan and China. Jake Brake® products are used by North American heavy-duty diesel engine manufacturers as well as Hino, Hyundai and Mitsubishi in Asia and DAF in Europe. Registered to the ISO 14001 and TS16949 standards, Jacobs Vehicle Systems is the world’s leading producer of vehicle retarding and valve actuation technologies and can be found on the Internet at http://www.jacobsvehiclesystems.com