Great Dane R&D Lab Provides "On-the-Road" Testing
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Life on the road isn't easy on a trailer - But rest assured that Great Dane's R&D lab puts the trailer to the test before you do. Our products are extensively tested to meet and exceed even the industry's specifications to ensure that you receive quality fit for the long haul.
The centerpiece of Great Dane's R&D lab is the Road Simulator, the most tortuous proving ground in the industry. The computer-controlled mechanism puts a loaded trailer through the punishing grind of jarring potholes, steep climbs, rough railroad crossings, severe dips, harsh bumps, twists and turns. The only one of its kind in the industry, the simulator inflicts 10 years' worth of stress on a trailer in just a few short weeks of test time.
The R&D lab puts Great Dane trailers and their components through a battery of additional testing. Some of these areas include:
New Designs - Whenever Great Dane product engineers create a new design, an evaluation of its function is required. Both non-destructive methods, including weight, traditional pencil-and-paper engineering or highly detailed computer analyses, and destructive testing is used. For the latter, a set of known loads is applied to the component until it breaks, and the point of rupture indicates whether or not it meets design goals.
Floors - The floor system is the heart and soul of the trailer; without a robust floor you can't rapidly load the trailer and it won't make money for you. As floor materials (aluminum and hardwood) have improved in quality allowing increases in ratings, R&D has evaluated current designs at higher load ratings to optimize product offerings. The pursuit of new materials for floor systems is a constant, as the ultimate goal of trailer engineers is to reduce or eliminate wood, and the biggest wood component of a trailer is its floor system.
Paints and Coatings - Environmental concerns, increasing exposure to caustic de-icing chemicals, and tighter restrictions on solvents and other ingredients that made paint and coatings durable have all created a vast need for continual improvements. Due to these and other changes, R&D is increasingly asked to evaluate paints and coatings on a more frequent basis. The lab's salt spray cabinet is in constant use, stopping only for maintenance and cleaning. Even trailers' wiring harnesses are being tested for corrosion resistance. Those ongoing efforts have resulted in the use of several new anti-corrosion technologies on Great Dane trailers.
Non-Traditional Materials - A typical goal of mechanical engineering designers is to optimize a design for lighter weight, easier assembly, simpler maintenance and repair, and so forth. Those goals naturally point engineers to alternative materials outside of traditional steel, aluminum and wood components. For example, while fiberglass has been around for many years, its applications are continually expanding. At Great Dane's Savannah R&D Lab, engineers have used new forms of fiberglass to create PunctureGuard technology. Furthermore, one of our R&D engineers used his background to create ThermoGuard, a special PunctureGuard liner that helps prevents degradation of the insulation in a refrigerated trailer.
