Waupaca, Webb Design CGI Brake Drum for Reduced Weight, Increased Performance. (Industry News).Waupaca Foundry, Inc., Waupaca, Wisconsin Waupaca is a city in Waupaca County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 5,676 at the 2000 census. The city is believed to be named after Sam Waupaca (or Chief Wapuka) of the Potowatomi tribe. , and Webb Wheel Products, Inc., Cullman, Alabama Cullman is a city in Cullman County, Alabama, United States and is considered a part of Greater Birmingham. At the 2005 estimation census the population was 16,675, gaining about 2,000 people from the census of 2000. The city is the county seat of Cullman County. , designed a new compacted graphite iron (CGI CGI in full Common Gateway Interface. Specification by which a Web server passes data between itself and an application program. Typically, a Web user will make a request of the Web server, which in turn passes the request to a CGI application program. ) brake drum at a reduced weight and enhanced durability. The Platinum Series Brake Drum design saves 22 lb per wheel end. "CGI is central to the design. Without it, the brake drum wouldn't work," said William Powell This article refers to the American actor. For other people with the same name, see William Powell (disambiguation). William Horatio Powell (July 29, 1892 – March 5, 1984) was a three-time Academy Award-nominated American actor, noted for his sophisticated, cynical , Waupaca manager of melt and metallurgy metallurgy (mĕt`əlûr'jē), science and technology of metals and their alloys. Modern metallurgical research is concerned with the preparation of radioactive metals, with obtaining metals economically from low-grade ores, with . The brake drum relies on CGI for higher strength and increased stiffness to avoid mechanical breakage or failure. Although gray iron would have offered higher thermal conductivity, CGI provides fairly high thermal conductivity to handle the friction, said Powell. Designed for Class 8 highway and severe-service trucks, the steering wheel brake drum weighs 55 lb and the drive wheel brake drum weighs 88 lb. "We were looking to create a part that fit a market need. There's a market need for lightweight drums and we needed to find a way to enter that market," said Powell. "About 20% of the trucking industry desires a lightweight brake drum. Waupaca did not participate in that market nor did Webb." So with that goal in mind, Powell worked with Webb Vice President of Sales Paul Levering, who was vice president of engineering at the time, to develop a lightweight brake drum. "What's important is its thermal strength resists the brake shoe," said Levering. "The brake drum has to last 8000 miles for a severe service truck like a garbage truck, which has to make frequent stops, and last 200,000 miles for an over-the-road tractor-trailer or the truck driver isn't happy. This design achieves that." In tests, the CGI brake drum showed minor heat cracks after 100, 70-mph stops, whereas heat cracked through the surface of a full cast brake drum after 34 70-mph stops and through the surface of a steel shelled brake drum after 29 70-mph stops. The terms of the production agreement between Waupaca and Webb have not been disclosed. Waupaca produces gray and ductile iron Ductile iron, also called ductile cast iron or nodular cast iron, is a type of cast iron invented in 1943 by Keith Millis[1]. While most varieties of cast iron are brittle, ductile iron is much more ductile, as the name implies. sand castings Casting is the process of production of objects by pouring molten material into a cavity called a mold which is the negative, or mirror image of the object, and allowing it to cool and solidify. to serve the transportation, construction, agriculture and power transmission industries. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion