Vehicles In the case of vehicles, the term
rolling chassis means the
frame plus the "running
gear" like
engine,
transmission,
drive shaft,
differential, and
suspension. The "rolling chassis" description originated from assembly production when an integrated chassis "rolled on its own tires" just before
truck bodies were bolted to the frames near the end of the line. An underbody (sometimes referred to as "
coachwork"), which is usually not necessary for the integrity of the structure, is built on the chassis to complete the vehicle. For
commercial vehicles, a rolling chassis consists of an assembly of all the essential parts of a truck without the body to be ready for operation on the road. A car chassis will be different from one for commercial vehicles because of the heavier loads and constant work use. Commercial vehicle manufacturers sell "chassis only", "cowl and chassis", as well as "
chassis cab" versions that can be outfitted with specialized bodies. These include
motor homes,
fire engines,
ambulances,
box trucks, etc. In particular applications, such as
school buses, a government agency like
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in the U.S. defines the design standards of chassis and body conversions. An
armoured fighting vehicle's hull serves as the chassis and comprises the bottom part of the AFV that includes the
tracks, engine, driver's seat, and crew compartment. This describes the lower hull, although common usage might include the upper hull to mean the AFV without the
turret. The hull serves as a basis for
platforms on
tanks,
armoured personnel carriers,
combat engineering vehicles, etc. In the
intermodal trucking industry, a
chassis is a type of semi-trailer onto which a
cargo container can be mounted for road transport.
Electronics computer case In an
electronic device (such as a
computer), the chassis consists of a frame or other internal supporting structure on which the
circuit boards and other electronics are mounted. In some designs, such as older
ENIAC sets, the chassis is mounted inside a heavy, rigid cabinet, while in other designs such as modern
computer cases, lightweight covers or panels are attached to the chassis. The combination of chassis and outer covering is sometimes called an
enclosure.
Firearms , based on the
bolt-action Remington 700 design but
bedded inside an
accurizing chassis. In firearms, the chassis is a
bedding frame on
long guns such as
rifles to replace the traditionally wooden
stock, for the purpose of better
accurizing the gun. The chassis is usually made from hard
metallic material such as
aluminium alloy (and less frequently
stainless steel,
titanium alloy or recently
magnesium alloy) due to metals having superior
stiffness and
compressive strength compared with wood or synthetic
polymer, which are commonly used in conventional
rifle stocks. The chassis essentially functions as a more extensive pillar bedding, providing a metal-on-metal
bearing surface that has reduced shifting potential under the stress of
recoil. A
barreled
action bedded into a metal chassis would theoretically operate more consistently during repeated firing, resulting in better
precision. With the increasing availability of
CNC machining, chassis have become more affordable and sophisticated as well as gained increasing popularity as these types of chassis can be expanded to accommodate customizable "furniture" (
buttstock,
pistol grip, etc.) and
rail interface systems that provide mounting points for various accessories. ==See also==