Mantella’s new long lasting tipper trailer is designed to last and save costs

Reduced weight improves sustainability of semitrailers

Mantella S.r.l. is a family business located in Lamezia Terme in southern Italy. The company has set ambitious goals to design stronger and lighter semitrailers that will carry larger payloads, while saving fuel and reducing CO₂ emissions at the same time. Reducing emissions is important since road transport accounts for 17.5% of overall gas emissions in Europe, according to the European Environment Agency. By 2050, these emissions will need to be at least 60% lower than in 1990 and be firmly on the road towards zero.

“By lowering fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions per ton kilometer we are contributing to a more sustainable world. To successfully develop this lightweight tipper trailer, the entire company has been involved – design engineers, production, management and purchasers. The Stratosphere trailers make use of all the benefits obtainable from SSAB’s high-strength tipper trailer steel grades like Hardox^® 500 Tuf. Naturally, we are also in the process of implementing stronger and lighter tipper trailer design solutions for our other trailer series,” says Gregorio Mantella, Plant Director at Mantella.

Long lasting trailer body designed for stiffness

When using a thinner material, the body of the semitrailer has to be designed in a way that ensures the stiffness and overall stability of the body. When raising a fully loaded trailer body with a front mounted hydraulic cylinder, the body experiences high stresses. If it’s not designed correctly it could result in a sudden buckling of the sides.

To counteract this, Mantella incorporated a number of trailer design changes such as adding horizontal bends to the side panels. This gives the necessary stiffness to the entire body. The hydraulic cylinder attachment, top rails, rear frame and tipping pivots have also been redesigned for added torsional stiffness.

A new trailer design for higher productivity and performance

In addition to using Hardox^® 500 Tuf, Mantella challenged conventions when it decided to produce the longitudinal beams of the chassis by advanced bending of a single flat strip of Strenx^® 960 instead of welding.

The new trailer chassis in the Stratosphere series weighs in on par with aluminium, and has all the durability, fatigue strength and production advantages of steel. Mantella now not only offers its customers a chassis that is 145 kg (320 lbs.) lighter. It also possesses superior mechanical properties and improved road handling.

“End-users of the Stratosphere 3.0 point out that with the same workload as previous models, they can achieve a greater payload, more on-road stability with a full load and a significant reduction in fuel and tire consumption,” Mantella said.