ContiTech’s new commercial vehicle tank concept raises safety standards

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  Double-walled safety tank as a new alternative to models made of aluminum and plastic

• Liquid contents remain protected in the flexible inner tank
• Crash tests confirm high resistance

For the commercial vehicle industry, ContiTech is now developing a new design for safety tanks. Considerably more robust than conventional tanks made of aluminum or plastic, they offer a safer alternative for fuel tanks. The tank concept will be presented to the professional public for the first time at IAA Commercial Vehicles 2014, at the Continental booth A06 in Hall 17.

During development, ContiTech focused on the high standards used for similar technologies in racing and aerospace. “The result is a new material design that, as far as we know, is unique in the commercial vehicle industry,” says Horst Gatzweiler, ContiTech’s head of tank construction. The core is a multi-layer internal tank that receives the liquid medium and is surrounded by an outer shell made of composite material. This combination of materials protects the liquid contents against strong forces. Initial tests, performed by fka Forschungsgesellschaft Kraftfahrwesen mbH in Aachen, have confirmed the tank design’s improved crashworthiness.

Bellows materials increase brightness

ContiTech Elastomer Coatings has many years of experience with flexible transport containers. The containers are used in airplane construction, helicopters, racing and boats, among other applications.

In the commercial vehicle industry, ContiTech Elastomer Coatings also delivers bellows materials used in articulated buses, for example. In addition to traditional designs, ContiTech offers a translucent variant that has already been used successfully in buses. The composite material used, ContiVitroflex®, consists of synthetic rubber and glass fiber cloth. It not only lets light through, but increases brightness, thanks to special light refraction.