The Italian company Astra Veicoli Industriali, dating back to 1946, from the very beginning specialized in the manufacture of trucks designed to operate in difficult road and climatic conditions. Four decades after its formation, the company became part of the international concern IVECO, which is a supplier of critical components for its cars. Today, the only Astra plant with a production area of over 140 thousand m2 is located in the province of Piacenza, 160 km from Milan. Every year, 1.5–2.0 thousand trucks are sent to customers. They are used as a chassis for mounting all kinds of technological equipment, tractors for working with a wide range of trailers, construction and mining dump trucks with a rigid and articulated frame, and military vehicles. About 40% of products bearing the Astra brand are sold in Italy, another 30% are sold abroad, and the same portion is sold to the Armed Forces.

ARMY CARS

Using units of the Astra HD8 family, military MWM vehicles (4x4, 6x6 and 8x8) with a payload of 7 to 17 tons are produced, as well as new multi-purpose MMV vehicles with a 4x4 wheel arrangement with a payload of 3.5 to 6.4 tons. The vehicles have a cabover layout, leaf spring suspension and drive axles with minimum-sized main gear housings, standardized rectangular cabins with roof hatches.

ALL-ROAD DUMP TRUCKS

Astra has accumulated significant experience in creating all-terrain articulated dump trucks. The design of the ADT family of machines, made on a single basic platform, provides for maximum unification within the type.

The starting point was the three-axle (6x6) Astra ADT 25c dump truck, which transports 23 tons of cargo, and the more powerful ADT 30c vehicle, designed to transport 28 tons. They are followed by the ADT 35c and ADT 40c samples with a carrying capacity of 31.5 and 36 tons, respectively. Models ADT 25c and ADT 30c are equipped with a 10.3-liter IVECO Cursor 10F3A turbodiesel with a power output of 319 and 353 hp, respectively. Under the hoods of the larger ADT 35c and ADT 40c trucks there is an IVECO Cursor 13F3A engine with a displacement of 12.8 liters and a power of 402 and 456 hp. respectively. All samples are equipped with a ZF automatic hydromechanical transmission with six forward and three reverse speeds. Dump trucks are equipped with wheel reducers and self-locking differentials. The front continuous axle is suspended from the frame by means of trailing arms and pneumohydraulic cylinders. The rear suspension is spring-balancer with longitudinal guide rods. The brake system is dual-circuit, with disc mechanisms on all wheels. The frame, consisting of stamped rectangular beams, is made of high-strength steel. Its peculiarity is the absence of welded joints. Changing the direction of movement of the car to the left or right occurs by turning the front section, which includes the cabin and the power unit, at an angle of up to 45°. The steering is equipped with a hydraulic booster. High all-terrain performance is achieved due to the fact that both sections allow unlimited mutual movement in a vertical transverse plane relative to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle. This circumstance allows the drive wheels to constantly maintain contact with the supporting surface.

Astra has updated its family of all-terrain rigid-frame mining dump trucks. Now these models (4x2) with a lifting capacity of 28 and 32 tons are respectively designated RD 28c and RD 32c. Low-alloy high-strength steel is used as the structural material of the load-bearing frames of both samples, which ensures the perception of high dynamic loads. The longitudinal frame spars have a box-shaped section of variable height and are connected to each other by powerful cross members of a closed profile, and an integral bumper is located in the front part. Much attention is paid to the quality of welds. In places of greatest stress, cast reinforcing elements are built into the frame structure.

The dump trucks are equipped with an IVECO Cursor 10F3A turbodiesel with a power of 353 hp. RD 28c and 381 hp. at RD 32c. The vehicles are equipped with an Allison HD 4560 hydromechanical transmission, which includes a lock-up torque converter and an automatic 6-speed planetary gearbox, switched under power. Electronic devices control the transmission and diagnose it. Torque is transmitted to the drive wheels using a spaced main gear with planetary gearboxes built into the wheel hubs. Dump trucks use a suspension with pneumohydraulic elastic elements and a built-in stiffness regulator. It has a nonlinear elastic characteristic that ensures the necessary smoothness of the dump truck in loaded and empty states. Dump truck bodies are made of high-strength steel, and a reinforced body structure is used to work with heavy rocks. An indispensable attribute of such a body is a powerful canopy over the cabin, which meets the requirements of the FOPS standard to protect the driver from objects that could fall from above. Much attention is paid to the external architecture of the trucks and the comfort of the drivers.