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Moss Gear enters
Page 57
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trailer market by Ron Cater
• Having successfully developed a new method of producing axle tubes, the Moss Gear Co. Ltd., Tyburn, Birmingham, announced last week that it is embarking on a programme of trailer axle mass production, with a complementary range of singleand tandem-axle suspension units. Work is now in hand laying down the production facilities for an output expected to reach 350 axles per week.
Trailer-building companies already using the new Moss trailer axles include Thompson Trailmobile, M and G Wooldridge and Hoynor, and when I visited the Tyburn factory last week. it was evident that substantial orders had been placed for the equipment. In the one factory every operation, from casting and forging through machining and welding to assembly, is carried out, which allows a high degree of quality control and should result in trouble-free units for the operator.
The newaxle tube production process dispenses with the need for threeor fourpiece units with stubs either welded or bolted in position. A tube of suitable wall thickness, 0.5 in. in the case of a 20,0001b unit, or 0.625in. for a 22,5001b one, has its ends heated and compressed longitudinally to increase the wall thickness at points where the greatest stresses are imposed. When the required thickness is achieved a second process changes the diameters of the stub portion of the axles to accommodate the inner and outer bearings, and the hub nuts, with no reduction in the wall thickness.
The forging process ensures that the metal grain flows along the length of the tubes, being bent around the required radii in an unbroken line. At the maximum stress points of the tubes the wall thickness is increased by over 100 per cent.
Hubs are machined from one-piece steel forgings and carry close-grained alloy castiron brake drums secured to the rear side of the wheel mounting flanges by the wheel studs and back-nuts. S-cam brakes, of 16.5 by 7in. or 16.5 by 8.625in. are optional and the drums are ribbed to avoid bellmouthing. All the component parts used in the hubs—brake gear, bearings, seals, hubnuts, wheel-studs, wheel-nuts and back-nuts —are ddigned, says Moss, to be interchangeable with those used by Rubery Owen, so users need not stock two sets of spares.
The suspension units are of the slipperended spring type, with axles located by radius rods. All the moving parts of the suspension are rubber bushed and again they are interchangeable with Rubery Owen 'equipment. Both the tandemand single-axle types are suitable for maximum permitted gross loads at the ground. These are: tandem, 18 tons; single-axle, 10 tons. Two versions of the axles are available for loads of 10 tons and 11.5 tons.
During development of the new axle beams, test units were successfully subjected to over lm. pulsation load cycles at loads 50 per cent higher than the maximum ratings.
Questioned about the company's ability to deliver units against orders on time, the Moss Gears' spokesman said that units are being stockpiled to provide a working float. And, later during my visit to the plant, I was shown substantial stocks of completed units that had not been built tO firm orders.