Hendrickson Truck Commercial Vehicle Systems is proud to celebrate the 10-year anniversary launch of Primaax, a family of severe-service air suspensions for the commercial trucking industry. The original Primaax system was launched in December 2001 followed by an enhanced version of the product, Primaax EX in 2008, which was designed to increase roll stability and improve durability above and beyond the original Primaax's severe-duty design for even more extreme environments and applications.
"Primaax EX has revolutionized the severe-service industry by providing a highly durable, highly stable platform with all of the benefits of an air ride system," said Doug Sanford, vice president and general manager of Hendrickson Truck Commercial Vehicle Systems. "Not only does Primaax EX provide stability characteristics similar to a mechanical suspension, but the premium ride quality of the system also helps comfort the driver and protects expensive equipment from premature wear."
Prior to Primaax EX, significant trade-offs existed between premium ride quality and high stability. To achieve superior ride quality, manufacturers had to sacrifice stability and vice versa. With the introduction of Primaax EX, Hendrickson was able to achieve both of these suspension characteristics through an unprecedented, technologically-advanced design.
"By changing the geometry of the system to a more optimized configuration, Primaax EX was developed to achieve higher levels of roll stiffness compared to the original Primaax suspensions and over two times the roll stiffness of other industry air suspensions," said Ashley Dudding, director of engineering for Hendrickson Truck Commercial Vehicle Systems. "This allows Primaax EX to thrive in high center-of gravity applications where air suspensions had previously not been considered. In addition, numerous advancements were made to improve the durability of the system through modified designs, advanced materials and manufacturing processes."
Higher levels of roll stiffness and more rugged components allowed Primaax EX to proliferate into numerous vocational and severe applications where other air suspensions are unable to go. The suspension has made a significant impact on the oil field industry, the refuse segment, concrete mixers and the logging business. It is spec'd by heavy-haulers, municipalities and general construction fleets, in addition to numerous additional applications. As the vocational market starts its recovery, Primaax EX is poised for growth.
Primaax EX is now available at all major Class 8 truck OEMs in various offerings including both drum and disc-brake configurations.
