GIVING SCHOOL BUSES A Brake Chuck Eberling, principal systems engineer at Bendix
Commercial Vehicle Systems. “School officials also must become familiar with the technology before including it in bid specifications. Meanwhile, much of this technology is in use on other commercial vehicles and passenger cars.” An industry consensus favors the emergence of air
disc brakes for school buses, which greatly improves stopping potential. “Te transition from the traditional drum brakes to air
disc brakes is in the infancy stages now, but air disc brakes are the better mousetrap,” comments Haldex’s Petresh. Telma has shed about 40 percent of the weight from its
drive line engine retarder. Engler says brake system devel- opers will continue to be challenged because while vehicles have more horsepower and run faster, the stopping dis- tances are getting shorter. “This puts greater demands on stopping technology,”
he adds. An intriguing piece of technology is called Active Cruise
with Braking (ACB), a variation of Adaptive Cruise Control, developed by Bendix Spicer Foundation Brake. Te system uses radar to monitor the distance between vehicles and warns the driver when the gap narrows. Te cushion is de- termined by speed and the number of seconds it takes to close the gap. If the vehicle is in cruise control, the system will de-throttle the engine, engage the engine retarder or apply the brakes to maintain the distance. A stability sys- tem is also included. Fred Andersky, director of marketing for the Bendix Con-
trols Group, says the technology is not meant to replace a good driver. “We will not make a bad driver a good driver,” Andersky adds. “But we may help a good driver avoid a bad situation.” ■
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66 School Transportation News Magazine October 2010
Oct10_STN.indb 66 9/14/10 12:18 PM
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