Objective
If you forget to take away the nozzle, when you have filled fuel in the tank of your car - a disaster may happen! These drive away accidents happens almost every day! Normally the nozzle hooks in your car and pulls away parts of the pump and damage the dispenser. Then it goes on throwing out 40 - 200 litters of fuel per minute creating very large hazards of explosions, fires, personal injuries and environmental damages. About 20 % of the dispensers in Europe are equipped with safe break devices. But most of these devices have disadvantages that impede them from protecting you. They are sensitive to corrosion from the fuel and affection from different weather conditions. This results often in malfunctions and a very short life time. Even if there is a safe break on the dispenser, the probability of malfunction is high. The authorities work with regulations for safe breaks - the CEN 221 standard is foreseen to be ready in 1998. The State-of-the-Art is that no safe break system on the market stands up with the requirements of this standard. The proposers in this project cooperate to develop a new type of safe break device, which will be applicable on different types of liquid dispenser systems - with or without sigth glass, coaxial or standard hose - and in accordance with the CEN 221 standard. The overall economic objective is that the new type of safe break device can be produced at a cost, which is less than 50 % compared to the State-of-the-Art. But in this developing project we have not been able to achieve acceptable solutions - the problems are more difficult than you think. for As we are SMEs with limited know-how we must engage external experts, who will by RTD try to solve the problem in cooperation with us. The overall objective of this research project is to increase the knowledge in this field and solve the technical problems, which impede this on-going developing project. The main problems to solve are: - how to develop/find/select a material which is resistant to corrosions from fuel and other environmental affections. - how to find a flexible material that can execute the break away function in one device without complex components. - how to solve the problems regarding pressure shocks up to 40 bars. The approach to meet the objectives is to commission the performer group to solve the problems through RTD in material science, optimising of structures, stress/strain, simulations, mechanics and co-operation with the Proposer by bench marking and testing of the innovation steps. Timetable: RTD project 18 months. Exploitation of the results and developing of the product 6 + 3 months. The potential market is immense - in Western Europe there are approx. 1 600 000 fuel hoses, which must in the near future be equipped with safe break devises according to national regulations. The core group of Proposers will produce about 40 000 units in the year 2001- 2. Then the volumes will increase. The new safe break device will be patented and we shall sell licenses at a large extent. The results of the RTDs will - if the objectives succeed - have a great number of application possibilities for SMEs both in this sector and in other sectors. In the short run the project will create about 20 new employment in the core group. In the long run the new safe break device will improve the environment and create a great number of new employments at SMEs in the EC. The results will be disseminated to other SMEs through articles in newspapers and via IRCs, branch organizations, Focal Points and lnternet. December 12, 1997 Malte Persson & Son AB Co-ordinator
Fields of science
Topic(s)
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CRS - Cooperative research contractsCoordinator
302 30 Halmstad
Sweden