Bendix Expands Brake Shoe Plant
Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems said its Huntington, Indiana, brake shoe plant has undergone a $3.2 million expansion.
The facility now can handle the remanufacturing of brake shoes from salvage to assembly and can produce several million remanufactured commercial brake shoes.
The key upgrade to the facility is the 1,000-ton coining press, which returns used brake shoes to their original shape engineered by the manufacturer.
“A brake shoe undergoes a tremendous amount of force and drastic temperature changes during its life cycle,” said Frank Gilboy, brake shoe product line manager.
“Over time, this results in deformation. It’s twisted, or it’s stretched, and if you just reline that show with new friction — like most brake shoe reliners do — you’re going to have issues when it engages with the drum, because it no longer has the correct geometry to provide full contact and stopping power,” he added.
Other improvements to the facility include automated de-liners to remove the friction, new blasters to clean the shoes and a new paint line that can handle up to 500 parts an hour.
