New equipment and publications
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The broken road-spring and the irate boss looking for every bit of extra payload—these are common problems faced by the engineer, problems that can both be met, it appears, with single-taper-leaf road springs on trailers.
Introduction of single-taper-leaf springs into the UK by Rubery Owen was met with the usual conservative reception handed out to anything that is new or unorthodox—they were originated in America by RockwellStandard. But results achieved as far as reliability is concerned have been extremely encouraging. Although this design of road spring has been in fleet service, both in the UK and Europe, for three years there are no records of a breakage having occurred.
Looking at the other side of the picture—
extra payload UK operations demand a spring with a rating of around 9,000lb and a slipper-ended unit of this capacity with eight plates weighs 1161b. Compared with this, the same-capacity taper-leaf spring scales only 451b—and it can apparently give longer service.
There must be a lot of head scratching going on at this very moment in search of 2cwt of unladen weight and this is what you can get with single-taper-leaf springs in place of conventional components.
For those who were too wary to adopt single-taper-leaf springs on their trailers having Rubery Owen M Series suspension— or bought their trailer before they were introduced—that company now offers conversion kits. Details can be obtained from Mr. K. Wilkes, service manager, Rubery OwenRockwell Ltd., PO Box 36, Cleveleys Road, Warrington, Lancs. The Bramber Engineering Co. Ltd. (one-third owned by the North American Rockwell Standard group), is now the sole UK licensee and manufacturer.
Radiotelephone
A mobile radiotelephone now produced by Storno Ltd., is known as the COL 600 and is a simplified version of the company's CQM 600 mobile station.
Ely limiting the number of channels to six and eliminating duplex operation and duplex input features, it has been possible to reduce both the price and dimensions of the unit. Because of its small size-70mm by 230mm by 230mm—it can readily be mounted under the dashboard of the majority of vehicles, which enables direct control to be used and further reduces the price. A remote-control is available if required.
Made by: Storno Ltd., Private Box No 4, Camberley, Surrey.
Electric recovery crane
A load of up to 2 tons can be lifted by an all-electric recovery crane, recently announced by Dial-Holmes (England) Ltd. Known as the 220, the crane is equipped with a telescopic box-section boom and a boom head that can be swivelled through 180 deg. The power-operated reversing winch has a pull of 16,000113. Operated by push buttons the electric motor is driven by the vehicle battery.
The boom has a normal reach of 7ft and can be extended to double this length, which reduces the load capacity of the crane to 1 ton. In standard form it is particularly suitable for mounting on a Ford Transit 35cwt chassis; other models are available for installing on a Land-Rover.
Made by: Dial-Holmes (England) Ltd., Caxton Hill, Ware Road. Hertford, Herts.
Price: £515.
Washing unit
A high-pressure washing unit which incorporates a double-barrelled hand-operated spray gun has been introduced by the Warwick Pump and Engineering Co. Ltd. Known as the Stratowash 500, it can be powered by a Honda petrol engine or.an electric motor. The pump is a twin-piston unit and throughput is 2 to 3gal per hour at 500 p-s.i.
The two outlets from the gun give either a direct jet or 15deg spray and the 500 psi. pressure can be utilized and not a small percentage of it as is often the case with many units having variable nozzles. Wilt the new gun, special attention has been paid to the design so that friction and turbulence caused by a dissipating stream of water are reduced considerably.
All working parts are of brass and the handle is plastics coated for ease of handling. A sliding on-off control at the top of the handle enables the operator to choose instantly between the two different streams and a variety of nozzles is available to suit different requirements. The gun can be supplied for use with other makes of washer. Made by: Warwick Pump and Engineering Co. Ltd., Ferry Lane, Hythie End, Staines, Middx.
Price: complete, E 145 ; gun onlyf 12.
Brake tester development
A print-out of brake force arid pedal pressure in the form of a graph is provided by an instrument panel of the IR-Frichs brake and performance tester, marketed by IngersollRand Co. Ltd. The panel also includes instruments that give a direct reading of engine torque during acceleration and transmissionloss torque during deceleration in neutral. A 0-120 mph speedometer and revolution counter are available for testing automatic transmissions.
The tester is supplied with a low-voltage eddy-current brake for load-holding and a 3,00016 flywheel. This enables tests to be made of gear changing under load, over-run characteristics and clutch take-up.
Marketed by: Ingersoll-Rand Co. Ltd., 165 Queen Victoria Street, London, EC4.
Nickel plating guide
A 48-page booklet has been produced by International Nickel Ltd., entitled Nickel plating: technique and applications. It is intended as a practical guide to engineers concerned with plating on the application of plating solutions in common use conditions of deposition and the mechanical properties of solutions, relating to a wide variety of jobs. Published by: International Nickel Ltd., Thames House, Millbank, London, SW1.
Aerosols
DCMC Industrial Aerosols Ltd. has announced two new ranges of aerosols for the application of lubricants and protective coatings, each of which incorporates a number of new products. Products have also been added to the company's marking, display, catering, cleaning, maintenance and graphic-arts ranges, and overall the total number of products produced by the companyhas been increased to 72.
Made by: DCMC Industrial Aerosols Ltd., Haverhill, Suffolk.
Listing tyre service
The 1968 edition of the National Tyre Distributors' Association Tyre Breakdown Service Book is now available. It contains the names, addresses and phone numbers of 1,123 depots of which 746 offer 24-hour, sevendays-a-week service, and covers 400 towns in the UK.
Fleet operators or users wishing to obtain more information about the breakdown scheme and fleet service scheme should contact their nearest NTDA member, or the secretary of the Association.
Published by: NTDA, Broadway House, The Broadway, London, SW19.