Truck side curtain tensioners make it big

Over the past decade, more and more commercial body developers have moved away from rigid sided trailers in favour of the flexibility and access provided by using curtains on each side of the trailer.

Over the past decade there has been a trend in Europe that has mostly gone unnoticed.

Despite this lack of awareness by the majority of the people of Europe, this trend has greatly benefited East Anglian precision engineering company, Acro Precision Technology.

This is the trend in "curtain-sider" trucks.

Over the past decade, more and more commercial body developers have moved away from rigid sided trailers in favour of the flexibility and access provided by using curtains on each side of the trailer.

At an early stage in the development of curtain-sider trailers, Acro was involved in the development of "curtain tensioners", the mechanisms that are used to pull the curtains tight along the length of the trailer.

"Over the years, we have developed and manufactured curtain tensioners for many of the Europe's leading truck and trailer manufacturers and even some as far away as Canada", said Fred Pain, General Manager at Acro.

"We have now shipped tens of thousands and often see our workmanship on the body of trucks on the motorway and even delivery trucks that deliver to our factory".

Acro's ability to provide low volume prototype and development services, as well as high volume manufacturing has enabled them to work closely with truck body manufacturers, offering a complete service from concept to production.

"The pricing for automotive parts is very competitive these days and we are proud to be equipped to offer UK engineering quality at world market prices", stated Fred.

"With our 24 hour unmanned machines, we are able to follow through on the development and provide quality components at the volume and pricing that European manufacturers are demanding." Although Acro undertakes a broad range of precision engineering projects, from medical to construction, the success of the curtain-tensioners has led to Acro creating a separate division of the company dedicated to their development and manufacture.

"We are planning to create a new website dedicated to the curtain-tensioner side of the business.

We now have a lot of off the shelf designs but can also modify these to provide bespoke solutions." said Fred, "The website will enable the world's commercial body manufacturers to quickly see the range of models available and what can be achieved".

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