Australia boasts a long and proud history of bus manufacture. As part of the Dunn Group, Custom Bus Group Pty Ltd is one of the earliest Australian bus and coach manufacturing companies with origins in 1950. Now in partnership with Denning Manufacturing after acquisition in 2019, the company has recently expanded its manufacturing facilities located in St Marys, NSW. This combined industry knowledge, experience and engineering technologies ensures Custom Denning now have the capability to design and produce an advanced range of buses that are uniquely built for Australian conditions and also cater to a broader export market.
ELEMENT ELECTRIC BUS: 16 hour (300km), re-charge free running time.
Whilst this revolutionary new bus project utilises many proven electric bus components used by OEM’s throughout Europe, Custom Denning’s ‘Element’ electric bus design is a pioneer in terms of battery and electric motor technology.
Incorporating advanced technology, solid state batteries these buses will be able to operate in hot, harsh climates without the need for battery cooling systems. The full re-charge cycle is expected to take approximately 5 hours through standardised chargers and connection points.
Documented trials conducted over in excess of 300 million kilometres have clearly demonstrated the validity of performance claims and the environmentally friendly advantage of the batteries. With no nickel, cobalt or harmful solvents, the batteries can be easily disposed of or recycled.
The Element bus is manufactured using a lightweight yet extremely robust stainless steel monocoque chassis combined with a ZF undercarriage/driveline to provide a 25 year dynamic service life. Durability and reliability is tested using finite element analysis software to evaluate structural integrity of bus design and safety.
Hydrogen fuel cell to advance the ‘Element’ bus capability even further.
With the Element bus now ready for production, Custom Bus are already working on an even more advanced model.
The ‘Element H2′ will incorporate hydrogen fuel cell technology that will increase the electric bus range to 500km before requiring a recharge
New Custom Bus plant powered with advanced compressed air technology.
With the new plant housing the latest state of the art equipment to produce precision laser cut raw materials with in-house tube and flat lasers, along with CNC folding machinery and robotic welding machines, Custom Denning opted to install an energy saving, high performance rotary screw air compressor from Kaishan Australia. The compressor is a KHE 30-8 package with variable speed control allowing for precise compressed air supply dependent on the processes in use at any time. This saves considerable energy costs when under low and variable demand.
The air compressor installation included all electricals and a large, new ring piping system designed to meet the demands for current production and future expansion requirements.
The plant now has the capability to roll out up to 25 buses per month with the new upgrades designed to accommodate production of the new Electric and Hydrogen fuel cell buses from 2020 on.
