Swedish brake specialist calls for simpler systems
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• A strong plea for standardization and simplification of commercial-vehicle braking systems was made by Mr. Carl Johnsson, of the Swedish manufacturers of SAB braking equipment when he presented a paper to the South London Centre of the Institute of Road Transport Engineers in Tooting last week. He said that the British three-line artic-braking practice was quite unnecessary and that split systems (with the front and rear brakes powered by separate air circuits) added to the complication of the braking layout on a tractive unit without giving any advantages.
With spring brakes at all axles and an efficient means of automatic brake adjustment such as provided by the SAB design of slack adjuster, said Mr. Johnsson, complete safety and an adequate secondary brake system could be provided: automatic brake adjustment was desirable with spring brakes which suffered from a big fall-off in performance when clearance between .the shoes and brake drum became excessive. Mr. Johnson said that there was a definite need for standardization in the brake standards of the various European countries and it was wrong that there should be so many standards that were radically different from each other.
These points came out in question time following the paper, which dealt with the background of the Swedish SAB company and gave details of the SAB slack adjuster design and its method of operation.
Speaking of his company's activities in the UK, Mr. Johnsson said over 3,000 units have been sold since a British subsidiary was formed. These have been for psv use and it was said that Leyland and Bristol now offer SAB slack adjusters as optional equipment. SAB is now turning to their use on goods chassis and experimental sets were said to be under investigation with all leading manufacturers of heavy vehicles using S-cam brakes.