The truck body on chassis for dry freight applies to several types of goods, including packagings, broken or unitized cargoes. In Brazil, this equipment is traditionally made of wood and recently of steel. Moreover, in overseas countries the manufacturing of aluminium bodies is quite common (mainly in Europe and the United States), for economic, operational and environmental reasons, such as: weight reduction and resulting increase in payload capacity of the vehicle; easy manufacturing and repair; recyclability of the material used.
This paper presents the main features and technical requirements from the Design of a Aluminium Truck Body mounted on a 3-axle truck, with 23 tons of deadweight (Gross Weight) and 5.4m of distance between axes.
During developing of the design, computational tools were used, e.g. 3D modeling (CAD) Finite Element Method Modeling (FEM) and Structural Optimization (Parametric and Topological), in order to meet the following requirements:
Specification of the regulations and standards as well as technical recommendations of the manufacturers of commercial vehicles;
Easy manufacturing, maintenance and repair;
Operational functionality for the transport of several goods;
The correct mechanical strength of the structure, when subjected to different load cases;
Minimizing the total weight of the equipment.
The technical data for the project are provided by means of tables and figures, which describe the payload capacity of the truck, its external and internal dimensions, arrangement of removable covers and accessories for loads securing.