Source | Yunlian Think Tank (ID: tucmedia), author | Meiyan Shi, Editor, | Small L
On December 29, 2021, the Trailer Club and the Transport Association Think Tank jointly held the "Hanging" Thought Safety, Guarding the Forward and the First Trailer Seminar "Hui"." The topic of the seminar mainly focused on the reasons for the crane fire for in-depth discussion and sharing, attracting nearly 100 senior executives from industry-related enterprises across the country to the event site and nearly 1,000 people to participate in the online live broadcast.
1. Analyze the causes of trailer fire from multiple perspectives
First of all, Zhang Qi, research director of the Institute of Transport Andyo, gave an in-depth interpretation of the "2021-2022 Commercial Vehicle Aftermarket White Paper" for everyone. The report pointed out that in 2020, the number of trucks carried exceeded 30 million units, and the number of trailers reached 4 million units, and the economic cost advantages of trailer transportation were highlighted. However, from the current market conditions, the safety problem of the trailer industry is becoming increasingly serious, especially the problem of trailer fire in recent years. The huge losses caused by this have become a major pain point for major logistics companies.
Zhang Qi, Research Director of The Transportation Association Research Institute
So, what is the cause of the trailer fire? How to solve the problem of trailer fire?
In view of the above problems, Wang Yizhong, general manager of Duto Technology, based on his many years of industry experience and massive front-line research data, made a theme sharing of "Causes and Solutions for Trailer Fires" on the spot.
Wang Yizhong, general manager of Dutuo Technology
Wang Yizhong combined with the domestic and foreign aftermarket to summarize and analyze that in addition to the fire caused by the goods, the main causes of the trailer fire are three categories: brake system, wheel hub system and puncture.
First, the failure of the braking system or improper adjustment will lead to the brake abnormality of the trailer, resulting in towing brakes.
When the vehicle is heavily loaded or the speed is fast, it is difficult for the driver to perceive the drag brake. Dragging brakes cause the brake drum to heat up, the temperature exceeds the phenolic brake pads, and even the ignition point of the tire will catch fire. Fires caused by braking systems often leave marks on brake drums and friction pads. When investigating the cause, these parts can be compared with the brakes on other shafts.
Second, when the maintenance of the trailer axle hub system is not timely and standardized, the bearing lubrication effect becomes worse; if the bearing exhausts the grease, the friction will cause its temperature to rise, the temperature is high enough to displace the bearing cage, the bearing housing ring will wear out, and the bearing roller will decompose. When the temperature rises high enough, residual grease, brake pad phenols and tires are ignited. The ignition point of the tire is 300 degrees, and once the temperature exceeds 300 degrees, the tire begins to burn, which then spreads to the trailer and the cargo.
Third, if the cause of the hub system and the braking system can be ruled out, the possibility of a flat tire needs to be considered. When individual tires burst, there are other tires to support the vehicle load, so the driver is not easy to find problems. Puncture tires are still spinning on the wheels (rims) or are stuck and dragged, causing the tires to overheat and burn, causing the trailer to catch fire or other traffic accidents.
At the same time, there are industry statistics that more than 80% of the "trailer fire" is reflected in tire bursts and fires, and a considerable part of them are directly caused by punctures.
It can be seen that solving the problem of puncturing tires can greatly reduce the probability of "trailer fire". In the United States, because the automatic inflator system is standard and the proportion of use is high, the flat tire ranks third in the cause of the trailer fire, but China should currently rank in the top two.
2. How to avoid a trailer fire?
For the problem of how to avoid the fire of the trailer, representatives of other logistics companies and senior experts in the commercial vehicle aftermarket also gave their own insights.
Xu Yaoning, senior manager of SF Express Vehicle Management, believes that trailer fires can be avoided in most cases, and fleets or logistics companies should not reduce costs by saving safety management inputs and maintenance costs.
First of all, for safety management investment, the fleet should plan in advance. On the one hand, it is necessary to establish a mechanism for pre-prevention, disposal during the event, and after-the-fact investigation to reduce the probability of abnormal occurrence and reduce the impact of abnormal occurrence; on the other hand, it is also necessary to improve the driver's relevant safety awareness. Because one of the direct causes of the trailer fire is that the driver's awareness of spontaneous combustion of the vehicle is not enough, it is crucial to cultivate the driver's relevant awareness.
The second is the cost of maintenance. Xu Yaoning believes that cost reduction can be achieved through the innovation of maintenance mode, rather than reducing the quality of accessories, extending the maintenance cycle and other means to achieve the purpose of cost reduction, and regular maintenance inspection can effectively avoid the occurrence of accidents.
Yin Jie, general manager of Jiehui Logistics, said that at present, the freight rate of the logistics market has been declining, so cost reduction and efficiency improvement have become the most direct demands of all logistics enterprises. However, the frequency of tire bursts in transport vehicles has always been very high, which not only threatens the safety of goods, but also affects the efficiency of transportation. Therefore, at present, the automatic inflation system is used to maintain the normal state of the tire pressure of the car, and when the tire pressure is abnormal, it will automatically inflate and alarm at the same time, so as to avoid the problem of puncture.
Gu Liqiang, project manager of Zhilun Technology, analyzed from the principle. He believes that TPMS (Tire Pressure Monitoring System) sensors can be used to sense tire temperature and tire pressure, obtain relevant data, and then process and analyze it to prevent tire bursts, and require regular maintenance and maintenance.
Wu Shifeng, technical director of CIMC Tonghua, believes that in addition to installing relevant detection devices on the tires, it is also necessary to be equipped with water-agent fire extinguishers, which can both extinguish fires and cool down. If there are mature axle temperature detection products in China, and the degree of productization is high, it will be helpful for temperature warning. In addition, some manufacturers blindly pursue the low cost of parts, resulting in many cases of fire, such as handshake valves, trachea, etc. have had problems.
The interaction between industry experts and on-site guests also pushed the popularity of the seminar to a climax. Trailer safety problems are frequent, which also reflects some problems in the trailer industry. From the current perspective of the entire trailer market, the trailer aftermarket is still in a weak, small, scattered and chaotic state, with low degree of socialization and information asymmetry, so customers, trailer factories, accessories factories and aftermarket enterprises in the entire trailer industry need more frequency integration to jointly promote the healthy development of the trailer industry.
With the domestic trailer ownership exceeding 4 million, the repair and maintenance of trailers has also been paid more and more attention, and many platforms have begun to cut into the trailer maintenance market. As a digital service platform focusing on the commercial vehicle aftermarket, Youbei Car gradually redefines the service specifications of commercial vehicles by serving semi-trailers as the market entry point, and precipitating management, technology and culture into service standards and processes.
General Manager of Youbei Car Yang Tianzhu
This seminar also invited Yang Tianzhu, general manager of Youbei Car, to share the theme of "Intensive Development and Digital Service of Trailer Aftermarket", which introduced the means to effectively avoid trailer fires and the realization ideas of service digital platform construction.
Yang Tianzhu said that from the perspective of the commercial vehicle aftermarket supply chain, a competitive business model needs to be laid out for the pain points of the upstream and downstream links of the supply chain, which can be achieved by integrating upstream spare parts suppliers, polymerization terminal repair shops or providing additional value-added services.
Within two years, Youbei Car plans to establish "standardized, standardized and networked" operation and service capabilities, and build a service network in the form of "service stores + smart stations + service vehicles", thereby improving standardized delivery capabilities. At the same time, Yang Tianzhu also mentioned that Youbei Car will create a youbei digital dual engine through the form of "business + data" dual middle platform, and link "people, cars and fields" through digital services.
On the "people", we will take the user as the center, establish one person and one file, based on LBS, push the nearest station service and marketing activities, based on face feature recognition technology, realize customer characteristic statistics, and gradually build a membership service system.
On the "car", the data such as vehicle diagnosis, repair and maintenance will be interconnected with cloud data, based on image visual recognition technology, the statistics and management of vehicle admission will be realized, and the data interface docking will be realized with mainstream IOT hardware to assist vehicle diagnosis.
On the "field", a standardized service scenario, a humanized experience scenario, a pre-marketing scenario and a digital operation scenario will be built.
Finally, Yang Tianzhu combined with the service experience of the friendly car, put forward several suggestions on how to avoid the crane fire: first, whether it is a manufacturer or a maintenance enterprise, it is necessary to use accessories with guaranteed quality and service commitment; second, the trailer should be regularly inspected and standardized repair and maintenance; third, choose a professional service team; fourth, recommend customers to use an auxiliary system with stable quality in the industry that can have an early warning function for the crane fire.
The seminar gathered outstanding enterprises and industry experts in the trailer industry to discuss the solutions to industry problems, dock resources, share experience, and clarify problems. This is also one of the original intentions of Trailer Club to build an industrial supply chain platform. Next, the Trailer Club suggested that the industry set up a TTMC (Trailer Technology and Maintenance Committee) to invite more industry elites who love vehicle technology and study industry problems to join.
It is believed that in the next quarter, more trailer ecological enterprises will be deeply involved in the discussion and action of the second trailer seminar of "hanging" to "hang" safety and guard forward".
Trailer Club Introduction:
Alliance for Trailer Industry is an industrial supply chain digital trading and service platform jointly established with the joint support of many well-known trailer factories, trailer spare parts factories and industry customers in China. Committed to leading the trailer industry towards standardization, standardization and digital development, always implementing the core values of "openness, innovation, integrity and win-win", adhering to the unity of the body, working together to create industry standardization, and concentrating on achieving professional consulting, transaction matching, joint procurement, unified warehouse allocation, supply chain finance and other industrial supporting services in the trailer industry, promoting the development and exchange of member enterprises, sharing resources, and achieving all-round cooperation and multilateral win-win.
Trailer Club has set up its headquarters industrial base in Guangzhou, and will set up OEM bases in Shandong and Zhejiang in the future, and set up operation centers in Shanghai, Wuhan, Chengdu, Tianjin, Xi'an and Gao'an.