Development of Indigenous Automatic Load Sensing Valve

Braking of automotive vehicles is facilitated by the adhesion between the tyre and the ground. Braking forces generated at the wheels of a vehicle have to be appropriately matched to this adhesion. Load Sensing Valve(LSV) is one of the devices used to achieve this objective. An Automatic Load Sensing Valve (ALSV) is developed which can be used in the Air Brake system of commercial vehicles. Considering the typical Indian operating conditions (compared to European and American environment) for commercial vehicles, it was necessary to collect ‘customer voices’ to finalise minimum as well as desirable product features for the valve. Quality Function Deployment (QFD) was used to convert these customer voices into design specifications. Benchmarking of several similar products was done. This has resulted in a product which is having not only the minimum features found in a similar contemporary international product but also meets the typical requirements of Indian customers.