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One of the best known names in the industry, Rubery

30th March 2000, Page 51
30th March 2000
Page 51
Page 51, 30th March 2000 — One of the best known names in the industry, Rubery
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Owen's Service Equipment now specialises in equipment for the automotive trade from its base at Darlaston. Its latest offering, the RO disc lathe, helps operators get extra life out of truck or trailer axle brake discs.

Rubery Owen's Service Equipment (ROSE) offers a range of specialist workshop equipment, from an antifreeze recycler to parts washers. Its latest addition, the RO Disc Lathe, is aimed at the burgeoning disc-braked trailer market.

One attraction of using trailer axles with discs is their perceived in-service longevity. With cartridge-type wheel bearings and disc brakes, warranties are being pushed out ever further—SAF has recently posted six-year/ oboo,000lcm guarantees on its new range of Intraax axles.

However, relatively few UK operators have been using discbraked axles for any great length of time, and newcomers to disc brakes will have to work their way along a rather lengthy learning curve.

Tippiw work

in practice, it seems that pads are being changed roughly every 250,000lcm, while the discs are being marked down for replacement every 600,000km.

These parameters look fine for general haulage, but for tipper work in quarries, on sites or in coastal regions, it must be remembered that brake discs are extremely vulnerable to corrosion and grit and other foreign objects get trapped under the pads. Then excessive wear, grooving or rusting can affect a trailer's overall braking performance, and across three axles it could become a rather expensive problem.

But rather than replace badly worn or pitted discs at £200 apiece, it is possible to breathe new life into the old discs by simply resurfacing them.

"That is where the RO disc lathe comes in," says ROS E's Derek Collis. With it a technician can simultaneously resurface both sides of the rotor to help restore braking performance to optimum levels.

"But it's not just about revitalising brake discs that have reached the end of their warranty period," Collis stresses. He reckons that if hauliers were to check the state of the pads and discs regularly, say at every major service, and trim the surfaces where necessary, their working lives could be extenc about roo,000 miles. "Impc I y, you are maintaining you braking efficiency at not far of its optimum perforn throughout," he explains.

The job is relatively straig ward, provided there's plet clearance above the hub. the wheel off and any excE bearing play eliminated, mains-driven lathe un] mounted astride the secured to a forked bracket N is bolted to the caliper.

Smooth cut

A remote power drive unit 2.4oV) is connected to the 1 hub, so that the disc ca rotated at various speeds the lathe is fed in or out.

Using micrometer adju the cutters should be set f initial o.imm rough cut, fat by a 0.05rnm smooth pass should take care of most st scoring, but a second roue can be made if necessary.

Then, with the hub anc assembly rotated remotely, ti lathe's two adjustable cutti tools feed in and out automa to resurface both sides of filo

It takes no more than ac utes to resurface one disc while this is going on a si wheel station can be pre using the reserve mou bracket. With practice, says I an entire triaxle trailer can all its discs trimmed in les: three hours. The RO disc comes with adapter plates all axles, an extra mou bracket and a pack of 12 Cl tips, each of which will ti least 12 discs. Replacement costa few pounds at most.

Lathe kits, which are through ROSE-appointed a retail at 14,500. They come three-year warranty and lo extremely useful investme any fleet workshop.

• by Bryan Jarvis

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