Wabco Banks On Air Disc Brakes

Leading commercial vehicle supplier, Wabco, is betting big on air disc brakes in India.

- Bhargav TS

The 2017 season of Tata Prima T1 Truck Racing Championship saw Wabco feature its air disc brake technology in India for the first time. The news leaked out slowly, and through sources reliable enough to signal the arrival of yet another, new and significant technology for Indian Commercial Vehicles (CVs). The company, instrumental in the introduction of Automated Manual Transmission (AMT), was at work once again. Bullish about air disc brakes, and the potential it holds, Wabco in India, is pushing air disc brakes on the count of safety, and ease of service.

Offering numerous advantages, including the lack of exaggeration of friction coefficient differences, reduced fade, high thermal load, minimal and consistent hysteresis and ease of servicing, air disc brakes enable easy replacement of brake pads compared to that of the brake shoes in drum brakes. If the initial cost of air disc brakes is high, the advantage it offers is claimed to be an improvement in vehicle braking performance. A factor that is vital to CVs. Available in Europe, China and the US with a penetration level of 85 per cent, eight per cent and 15 per cent respectively, air disc brakes, according to Sven Horak, Vice President, Business Unit Leader, Wheel End Solutions, Wabco, are reliable, robust and easily applicable across vehicle segments. Penetration in India is said to be under one per cent as of current. Given the rate at which the Indian CV market is maturing however, Horak is confident that air disc brakes will soon become a part of new technologies Indian CVs will possess.