World's Most Powerful Snow Plough?
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THE British-built Bros rotary snow plough, which is being marketed by the British Rotary Snow Plough Co., Ltd., 37 Regent Street, London, WA, is believed to be the most powerful of its type to be made in the world. The available power to drive the plough unit is 360 b.h.p., whilst the specially designed carrier has an engine capable of producing 180 b.h.p, Three Meadows six-cylindered petrol engines are used, two Model 6PJ630 units supplying the power for the plough 'head and a Model 6PC630 driving the carrier. These engines all have similar output readings and., except for certain details, components of the two models are interchangeable.
An essential feature of a snow plough is to have maximum engine torque available at low road speeds, and to this end the overall reduction of the lowest gear on the carrier is 383 to 1. All wheels of the carrier are driven, the power being transmitted through a 16-in, single-dry-plate clutch to a fourspeed primary gearbox.
Open tubular shafts, with needleroller joints, transmit the drive from the primary box to a two-speed transfer box, from which the drive is taken by similar shafts to the front and rear axles.
Both axles have overhead-worm drive and the suspension is by semielliptic springs. Trakgrip 13.50-20 tyres are fitted. The conditions of operation call for power-assisted steering and that used is of the Vickers hydraulic type. The plough head consists of a double-V mouldboard, 9 ft. wide, in which twin casting rollers are located. These rollers are driven through a worm gearbox by splined half-shafts at a speed of 400-500 r.p.m. The plough head is raised and lowered hydraulically.
Power is conveyed to the plough by matched pairs of V belts, the tower belt pulley being connected to the rotor-drive worm by cardan shafts running forward over the front axle of the carrier.
Both the plough engines are fitted with fluid couplings which allow the full power of each engine to be satis
factorily transmitted to a common drive line. A claim made for this plough is that 1,000 men would be required to remove the same amount of snow in the same time. It also possesses the remarkable ability to cast the snow for a distance of 100-150 ft. on each side of the track.
The builders of these outfits, whic:f are being made in this country under licence from Wm. Bros Boiler and Manufacturing Co., of Minneapolis, U.S.A., are Steels Engineering Products, Ltd., Sunderland, who also designed the carrier to the requirements of the British Rotary Snow Plough Co., Ltd., the holders of the licence.