Across Europe, the Voith LP490 two-cylinder Euro 6 compliant compressor has been fitted as original equipment to Mercedes Benz Actros, Antos and Arocs trucks for several years.
“Many UK truck operators may not be aware that their vehicles are fitted with Voith compressors,” said John Domigan, Voith Turbo’s sales and marketing manager. “If a Voith compressor needs replacing, we are now geared up to supply truck operators quickly from a local outlet.”
He said that Voith compressors had specific advantages such as reduced power take-up. The newly-developed idle system reduced fuel consumption by as much as one litre per 100 kilometres. Also, lower operating air temperatures are said to eliminate carbonisation of the air supply system, delivering consistently high air quality.
Domigan adds: “Better air quality leads to a longer life for the system, and our compressors can operate at significantly longer duty cycles.”
On buses, compressors have to deal with heavier duty cycles than trucks, primarily because they are employed to open and close doors every time a bus stops.
In the UK bus market, Voith compressors were first fitted on the Volvo B5TL Euro chassis. The compressors were developed with Volvo engineers for its Euro 6 diesel bus engine.
More recently, Voith has been working on an increasing number of LP490 compressor retrofit applications.