Braking and stability THE IMPORTANCE of safe braking has been
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raised frequently by various contributors. It may not be clearly understood by all your readers that Clayton Dewandre has been engaged on development work for some years on the general question of achieving the safest possible braking systems which will result in the maximum stability of the whole vehicle or vehicle combination during braking.
As a result of our developments, it has been shown that the stability of the vehicle can be achieved considerably by the correct proportioning of braking between the various axles and this usually means making allowance for more braking on the front than hitherto.
Another factor which greatly affects the stability of the vehicle during braking is the weight on the individual axles which varies considerably according to whether the vehicle is laden or unladen. For this reason, we developed the load-sensing valve in this country which automatically proportions the braking of any axle according to the load on that particular axle so that maximum stability is now possible using correctly proportioned braking between the axles, together with a load-sensing device which takes care of the variation in load. This arrangement is equally effective on rigid vehicles and on articulated combinations.
The overall result is to improve stability and to provide better braking, with reduced stopping distances, which also has the side effect on articulated combinations of considerably reducing any tendency to jack-knife.
As the major manufacturers of power braking for commercial vehicles in the United Kingdom, we have spent much research time on developing safety-braking systems and pioneering the production of components such as multi-diaphragm brake chambers and investigating problems such as time lag. That this work agrees with the industry's thinking as a whole is shown by the development and production by Vauxhall Motors of the KM series and more recently by Ford with the new D1000 range.
We anticipate that by next year many other vehicle manufacturers will follow suit with vehicles equipped with designed safetybraking systems that fully meet Government regulations and the safety requirements demanded on Britain's roads.
D. H. BALLARD, Technical director. Clayton Dewandre Co. Ltd., Lincoln.