Collaboration Success in World Class Airport Snow Removal Vehicle

• Posted on Terry McCormick
• in news
• on November 15, 2017
• Comments Off on Collaboration Success in World Class Airport Snow Removal Vehicle

Snow Wolf SB1050 – Custom Gearbox Airport Snow Removal Equipment

Airport Technologies Inc (ATI) is a Canadian Company located near Portage, Manitoba, and is a premier Re-Life specialist of airport runway snowblowers and runway sweepers. The company has grown their product line to include the best “purpose built” airport plow vehicles in the world; the Snow Mauler, and the high speed airport snowblower, the Snow Wolf SB-1050.

Airport Technologies Inc. built the Snow Wolf SB-1050 to address the rapid pace snow removal needs that happen on the runway. The vehicle was built to run at 25 miles per hour, throw snow 85 feet, and achieve a clearing capacity of 7,500 tons per hour. Due to the size of the new model, ATI needed to find a new gearbox/clutch solution that could handle the torque and horsepower of the machine.

The first challenge was to find a gearbox manufacturer that could design a gearbox to fit into a specific space and envelope size, handle the 1,050 hp engine and 3,400 ft lbs of torque. Rj Link Int. worked with ATI to develop and build a gearbox for the Snow Wolf SB-1050.   A clutch also needed to be mounted directly onto their proprietary gearbox, and the system had to be fully integrated together in order to meet the size constraints.

Rj Link began working closely with the selected clutch provider, PT Tech, and was given proprietary drawings so engineering could start the process of developing a shaft on the gearbox that would marry up with the clutch. Rj Link Int. committed to a 6 month timeline to design, build and ship a prototype, when other gearbox suppliers were estimating 18 months. Rj Link sent two of their designers to PT Tech to discuss the connection between the clutch and the gearbox.   The first meeting facilitated the initial brainstorming session to find out which company was going to take on which role in the integrated solution process. Many meetings followed with engineers and staff from both companies working together to create a collaborative design. When it came time for testing at the Rj Link facility, the oil pump, reservoir, and all the necessary technology were used to help make the clutch function like it was in the actual application during pretesting.

At a time when it wasn’t the norm for component manufacturers to work together, Rj Link & PT Tech’s successful collaboration and support played a very important role in helping ATI to produce a high quality product for the Airport Industry.   ATI was extremely happy with the support they received from both companies to get the project pulled together in such a short period of time. The demand for the ATI’s high quality snowblower continues to increase with airports requesting additional machines.   Working with other component manufacturers to offer customers better solutions than what might be accomplished internally, continues to play a contributing factor in helping Rj Link to exceed customer expectations.

To learn more about Airport Technologies Inc.

Snow Wolf SB1050 YouTube Video