Patent GB-965262-A (GB)
Title: Automatic brake adjustment
IPC: F16D65/54
Filed: 1961-06-16
Abstract: 965,262. Internal shoe drum brakes. ROCKWELL-STANDARD CORPORATION. June 16, 1961 [June 17, 1960], No. 21802/61. Heading F2E. A vehicle brake assembly includes a brake shoe 34, 36 mounted on a support 20 and having a lining 38, 40 adapted to engage a relatively rotatable drum 42, return spring means 44 urging the shoe away from the drum, a reciprocally mounted actuator 27, a motion transmitting plunger member 30 separate from the actuator disposed between the actuator and the shoe including two relatively rotatable parts 54, 56 movable longitudinally of each other to automatically increase the length of the plunger member in response to wear on the lining through the action of pawl 62 and ratchet teeth 58. As shown in Fig. 2 the wedge actuator 27 having rollers 29 mounted thereon is actuated by a fluid motor and acts on the inclined end face of plunger 30. The latter is composed of an outer cylindrical member 52 slidable in a bore 33 in a housing 22 and an inner internally threaded nut member 54 rotatively mounted in a bore 50. Screwed into nut member 54 is a threaded stud 56 provided with an integral star wheel 57 and a central bore 59 which slidably rotatably receives the shank of a brake shoe retainer 51 into which fits the web of the brake shoe 36. A projection 61 on a washer spring 55 projects into any one of the peripheral separations in the star wheel 57 to prevent side movement of the brake shoe. Upon manual adjustment the tension force of the spring 55 is easily overcome so that the star wheel can rotate. Nut member 54 is provided circumferentially with helical ratchet teeth which engage with similarly shaped teeth 69 on a spring loaded pawl 62 which extends slidably through a slot 21 in the housing 22 and a slot 70 in the periphery of the cylindrical member 52. When the plungers 30 are slidably displaced by the wedge actuator 27 the pawl 62 will ride up on a single sloping surface 67 a certain predetermined longitudinal distance equal to the normal shoe clearance. If the movement exceeds this predetermined distance the teeth 69 will engage the next sloping surface 67 of the next adjacent tooth. When the plunger 30 returns upon release of the brake the ratchet nut member 54 is forced to rotate because of the pawl teeth 69 slidably abutting against the next inward vertical face 65 of ratchet teeth 58 which causes stud 56 to move axially outwards. In another embodiment, Fig. 6, a ratchet nut 98 is provided with longitudinal ratchet teeth and has threaded thereinto a stud 102 into which the brake shoe 36 extends. A flexible spring blade 116 engages the ratchet teeth and is provided with a recess inclined at an angle to the axis of the plunger 30a into which a stop 122 projects so that if on application of the brake the longitudinal movement of plunger 30a is greater than a predetermined distance the blade 116 will be rotated to engage the next longitudinal ratchet tooth so that the member 98 is rotated upon return movement of the plunger. The adjustment mechanism may be applied to brake structures incorporating transverse reciprocable plungers to displace the brake shoes outwardly at either or both ends of the shoe.