On March 19, 2021 at Thailand Automotive Institute, Lam Luk ka, Pathum Thani
MTEC and the Department of Land Transport had cooperated in the assessment of the structural integrity of the bus structure prototype. This structure is aimed to be a model for domestic manufacturers to use, thus helping improve the safety standards conforming to the international standards.
Mr. Yongyut Nakdaeng, the Deputy Director-General for Technical Affairs, and the Research Education Subcommittee of the Safety Road Thailand together with the relevant government and private sectors had participated in the event. This bus structure prototype was designed and developed to be more durable conforming to the international safety standards.
Mr. Yongyut Nakdaeng said that in the process of improving, developing, and raising the country’s standard in automotive engineering, Thailand Automotive Institute, therefore, had adopted an improvement approach of the bus’s main structure by putting highest concern on the passengers’ safety. To this end, it was the assessment of structural integrity of the bus’s structure, which the researchers had used a computer simulation to help analyze and design under various conditions, such as the capacity of the bus’s structure production by the domestic manufacturers, the domestic raw materials usage, the appropriate weight, and its cost. Simulations of the virtual bus and passengers’ weight to assess the bus’s structure performance were carried out by overturning the bus prototype to analyze for its safety. If the bus’s structure were reformed after hitting the ground, the reformed part should not penetrate the passenger’s safety area according to the United Nations Regulation (UN R66) requirements. Once the bus prototype passed the test, the developers could use it as a guidance for the domestic manufacturing. The developed bus prototype is aimed to be used for passenger transportation with a height of 3.60 meters or more. This developed bus prototype can be used with the bus that is newly registered, has changed its vehicle body, or has already notified its cancelation used under Section 79 of the Land Transport Act 2522, and later signed for its new registration, which will become effective from January 1, 2023, conforming to the guidelines for raising Thailand’s automotive engineering standards to be equivalent to the international standards.
Dr. Chi-na Benyajati, Research Team Leader of Advanced Engineering Systems Research Team, Engineering Design and Computation Research Group, MTEC, as a project leader, said that MTEC research team had researched, designed, and developed the bus structure prototype to be used as a guideline for the bus production conforming to the safety standards. This development has raised and strengthened the bus structure to be more safely used, able to reduce the severity from unexpected situations to the drivers and passengers as stated in the United Nation Regulation (UN R66: Uniform technical prescriptions concerning the approval of large passenger vehicles with regard to the strength of their superstructure).