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In a consortium with DAF Trucks, RWTH Aachen and many other partners, a new rear axle was developed for DAF's heavy-duty trucks. The weight of this rear axle was reduced by 17% (e.g. 65 kg) and a 28% reduction of friction losses was achieved.

Immense fuel savings
These newly designed rear axles have immense environmental implications: less weight and less friction save significant amounts of fuel and CO2 emission. The fuel saving can be up to 500 litres per truck per year. For annual DAF sales, the fuel saving is estimated to be 16 million liters per year, the total reduction of CO2 emission is up to 30 kton per year.

Improving heavy duty trucks
The design of the heavy-duty truck rear axle has seen no major changes over the past few decades. The casings of the rear axle represent at least 1000 kg of products/components in a heavy-duty truck, more than 10% of the total mass. With the new design of the rear axle, it was also attempted to reduce the complexity of the design.

VIDEO (in Dutch)