Two New Interesting French Devices
Page 27
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
—A Stabilizer and a Brake Unit
TWO inventions of considerable interest have just been brought to the practical stage in France by Messrs. Chaubeyre, La Gueroulde (Eure). The first is a stabilizing device applicable to all ordinary forms of suspension, including that embodying torsion bars.
The arrangement is simple and practical, the main principle being the linking up diagonally of front and rear roadwheel mountings through a central spring-loaded stabilizer. The last-mentioned device comprises two fiat steel members mounted scissor-wise on a common axis, the scissors being closed by laminated springs. These springs are supported at their centres and have their ends articulated to alternate " blades " in the " scissors."
The ends of the ordinary suspension springs, whatever form of springing may be employed, are connected up to the extremities of the blades in such a manner that the near-side rear wheel is linked to the off-side front wheel and the off rear wheel to the near front wheel. It may be mentioned in passing that the springs in the stabilizer take up shocks from one another, -eliminating any need for shock absorbers on the road-wheel springs.
, Several important claims are made for the Chaubeyre stabilizer, some of which appear to be well substantiated. Amongst them are that complete independence of movement is given to front and rear axles, that " shimmy " is entirely suppressed and that the possibility of breakage in road wheel springs is almost eliminated. This last claim has an important bearing upon the use of torsion bars, as these bars have an elastic anchorage for their twisting movement instead of a fixed one.
In the case of normal suspension springs, whether longitudinal or transverse, the spring ends are provided with small articulated bell-cranks which are linked to the blades in the central stabilizer.
Our Paris representative had the opportunity of testing a standard Ford V-8 car, equipped with the Chaubeyre device, and found it astonishingly stable at all speeds.
The Chaubeyre system, we understand,, has been standardized already for a number of existing vehicles, including several 'Aft:1y models.
The second Chaubeyre device is a new form of braking control designed to provide certain of the advantages of hydraulic braking without risk of failure through fracture of high-pressure oil pipes or joints.
As may be seen from an accompanying diagram, the idea is an adaptation of the ordinary hydraulic system. The hydraulic part of the apparatus is centralized in one small unit, under the immediate control of the brake pedal and the movement of the secondary pistons is transmitted by rods and cables to normal mechanically operated brakes.
In the drawing, mechanical compensators are indicated to equalize the pull between the two front wheels and, similarly, between the two rear wheels, but there appears to be no reason why each wheel should not have its own cylinder, as is the case in the Lockheed system. A unit, incorporating power-assisted application of the brakes has also been devised. In this, a power cylinder is mounted in tandem with the prirnary.or master cylinder. It is, of course, separate from the others and is connected with the storage tank or source of power, through a servovalve in the normal manner.