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TimeLine

Silvertip Design (40 years)

2031

Robust guided electric power transfer and charging network for the UK.

Tethered interlink vehicles run alongside battery electric trucks and cars. City cars and freight pods catch a lift on carBuses and charge up on the move. Tunnels and bridges provide access to the network for pedestrians and cyclists.

Affordable, efficient and doable.

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LST Longer semi-trailer study

2022

10 year road trial is due to finish.

The rear axle casters like a shopping trolley. It carries load but provides no lateral stiffness.

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COP26 at Glasgow

2021

Silvertip Design (30 Years)

2021

Vehicle design and evaluation software.

Set the traffic flows to sustain the country. And then design your perfect –ego– vehicle and see how it performs.

No limits on your imagination just try to obey the laws of physics and make it affordable.

Traffic flow simulator...

BladeRunner prototype

2017

Prototype...

BladeRunner technology

2017

Technology...

Guided Power Transfer (GPT)

2017

Siemens Proposal...

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Plug-in Safety-coupling

2015

The novel coupling enhances the roll and yaw stability of articulated vehicles (patent granted).

Aimed primarily at container lorries and tankers, the coupling significantly improves the safety margin for drivers and would reduce costs and save lives.

Testing to ECE standards

2015

The 50 tonne ‘pull-out’ test and the ‘steering wedge’ test were both successfully completed at Fontaine’s UK facilities.

Turnover Test...

Wedge Test...

Felixstowe to (M1) inland port

2013

Create a high capacity BladeRunner conveyor between Felixstowe and an inland port near the M1 at Northampton.

A thousand vehicles would provide the capacity to load and/or unload a container ship in 24 hours. The dockside transfer system would need to be automated.

BladeRunner would also be used to move containers around the port and position them for heavy rail above the tracks.

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BladeRunner ‘inturn’ system

2013

Creating inclusive and safe mixed use corridors suitable for the 21 century.

A BladeRunner system near Northampton is created by reinstating a single track rail line with an adjacent footpath and a cycleway. Regular passing places (not rail switches) provide bus stops along the route.

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Fontaine Fifth Wheel

2013

Letter of support from Martin Fallon

Letter...

Rollover lottery

2013

“Despite dramatic improvements in suspension and braking, heavy truck rollovers are not getting any less frequent.”

But operators are led to believe that these issues have been all but eradicated by roll stability programs (RSP).

Transport Engineer...

Transport Engineer

2012

'Turner prizes for longer'

“Only a 16.2-metre platform length could take full loads of Anglo or euro pallets. Transport efficiency lost. But no one with the power to end such waste at a stroke seems to care.”

Transport Engineer...

Silvertip Design (20 Years)

2011

Plug-in en-route proposal

2011

Support from Dave Rowlands of Wincanton and Garth Braithwaite WM Morrison Supermarkets PLC.

Proposal...

‘Planet Eisenbahn’ in Nürnberg

2010
The BladeRunner model was on show alongside Stephenson’s rocket to celebrate 175 years of the German railways.

2009

Why does the UK suffer from a persistently high number of truck roll-over accidents compared with continental Europe? Electronics for yaw stability, great; but applying the brakes in a turn is not clever. How on earth did it become mandatory?

Transport Engineer...

Commercial Motor 2009

2009

“Naturally all will hinge on the DfT’s latest survey. And if there is sufficient support (and more importantly ministerial backing) the next step will be to take it to full industry consultation, in 2010.”

CM Stretching the point...

Road Friendly...

Magnum SCM...

Low Carbon Vehicle event at Millbrook

2009

BladeRunner road/rail hybrid: great concept but as the vision is based on longer, more efficient, semi-trailers, optimised for general freight the TSB can not support it. Radical new ideas must comply with EU legislation.

LCV Millbrook...

DFT Engineering...

It is like trying to fly but having to keep one foot on the ground.

Routemaster competition entry

2009

Clear path for cyclist and the ability to crab-park into existing bus stops.

Routemaster...

Workshop...

Cambridge to St Ives

2008

Instead, a dualmode BladeRunner corridor would have provided a bus service through the day and a diversionary route for rail freight though the night. Safer, more efficient and significantly more productive.

More...

Track testing

2008

Drifting a loaded semi-trailer.

Design, build, test – including data acquisition, strain gauging and calibration.

Transport Engineer ‘Trial and error’

2008

Safety coupling increases safety margin.

“That’s because we have less roll, but the driver feels more of it, so on balance it feels much the same as usual, but there is an extra margin of safety"

Transport Engineer...

Concept of the Year

2007

Ten years on the longer steered semi-trailer wins EU award.

EU Award...

PM onboard

2006

Letter of support from Geoff. Mountain

More...

TR NEWS246

2006

“The days of the 40-foot container as the standard unit in international trade are coming to an end.”

TR News...

Cambridge University

2005

Research into Fifth-Wheel Couplings: Silvertip Design

Letter of support...

Imperial College (London)

2005

BladeRunner 2020 – the next transport revolution.

Presented at the Evolution of Modern Traction conference.

Paper...

BladeRunner development proposal

2005

The BladeRunner model has passengers. It is understood that a high-level meeting in Sweden involving the Bus division concluded that the concept competes directly with their growing articulated bus market and so Volvo trucks is forced to withdraw support.

Proposal...

SCM & Ecolink at Newark

2005

Demonstration of how a 16.5m (54’) and a 8.25m (27’) half-sized loading unit can be carried together on a fully steered interlink combination on UK roads. Safe, stable and very efficient.

Demonstration...

Image...

More...

BTAC fuel trials

2005

Transport Engineer...

The Times

2004

Is it a coach? Is it a train? It’s both and it could be the saviour of unpopular branch lines.

More...

Rail Wheel...

Science Museum (London)

2004

BladeRunner and TriTrack at the National Science Museum in London as part of the Antenna Live series of events.

TriTrack...

Cambridge University

2003

Comparative performance study and the validation of a semi-trailer steering model.

Brian Jujnovich and David Cebon

Note: the off-tracking measurements were taken from the rear of the trailer and not the rear axle as is normal.

Study...

Model...

Silvertip Design (10 Years)

2001

Haulage in the 21st century

2001

“If the legislators could see the trailer in action they might well be tempted to make it a standard fitment for any artic – it is simply that impressive.”

Andy Richardson, DonBur’s engineering director.

News Article...

Darlington & Stockton News

2001

Youngsters in Richmond showed they were the engineers of the future when they made model lorries based on one of the latest concepts in transport engineering.

Volvo kindly provided a hospitality trailer.

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Volvo Trucks

2000

Volvo Trucks provides a demonstration tractor unit for filming and space on their show stand.

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Truckscot 2000 – Glasgow

2000

The 1/16th scale radio controlled model and the full sized SCM trailer on show in Glasgow alongside the Stored Energy Technology (S.E.T.) prototype rail wheel-motor shown inline with the centre axle of the rear bogie.

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Institute of Road Transport Engineers show in Telford.

1998

Silvertip Design (started trading)

1991

Test driver (Multidrive)

1989

Carl Henderson was involved in the evaluation of a new low level steering mechanism for the Multidrive all wheel drive articulated truck. Testing was carried out at Cornforth proving ground near Durham.

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