Automotive Products Italia (sv) S.r.l.

Automotive Products Group Limited

Automotive Products Italia Spa

Adriano Girini

Luigi Tessitore

David Peasley

A parking brake () having a drum containing first and second brake shoe portions (), a handbrake lever () pivoted () adjacent one end on one () of the brake shoe portions and a strut () extending between a first abutment on the handbrake lever and a second abutment () on the other () of the brake shoe portions. Pivoting of the handbrake lever relative to said one brake shoe portion () moves the strut () which in turn moves the other brake shoe portion () away from said one brake shoe portion to bring the shoe portions into contact with the drum thus applying the parking brake. One of the abutments is in the form of a biased wedging means () which acts on the strut () to take up all play in the thrust path between the handbrake lever () and the other brake shoe portion () via the strut. A clamping member () is provided for disabling the wedging means () from operating except when initial manufacturing or assembly clearances are being taken up in the strut or when a subsequent manual adjustment of shoe clearance is being made. Alternative snail-cam type wedging means () are also disclosed as in an electrically actuated parking brake system with an automatic clearance adjustment device.

Parking brake of a drum brake

A brake adjuster for adjusting the working clearance of the shoes of an automotive drum brake, the adjuster including three co-axial elements a first rod element () having a head portion for engagement with a first brake shoe and a threaded stem portion, an intermediate element () in threaded engagement with the first rod element and a second rod element () having a head portion for engagement with a second brake shoe and a stem portion slideably connected with the intermediate element () and free to rotate relative thereto. A reaction member () is mounted on the intermediate element () and a ring gear () is provided on the intermediate element which is axially located between the second rod element and the reaction member. A leaf spring () acts between the second rod element () and the reaction member () for pushing the second rod element away from the intermediate element (). This leaf spring carries a bi-metallic pawl () which is either formed integrally with the leaf spring or is secured around the spring so that during a normal operation the pawl engages the ring gear () to operate the adjuster and at temperatures above a pre-set value the pawl is deflected out of engagement with the ring gear to prevent adjustment.

Growing community of inventors

Cairo Montenotte, Italy

Adriano Girini