Texas Truck Accident Attorney

Air Brakes

Air brakes are a special type of brake used in trucks, buses, trailers, and semi-trailers. The technology was pioneered by George Westinghouse. Westinghouse developed the concept and technology for use in railway service. A safer version of the air brake was patented by him in March of 1872.

Air brakes were originally constructed to be used on trains. This use is still common. Westinghouse took the existing technology and made alterations to improve his invention. This led to various forms of the automatic brake and so the use of the air brake was expanded to include road vehicles.

Compressed air brake systems are a separate type of air brake that is used primarily in trucks. It consists mainly of a standard disc/drum brake arrangement that uses compressed air where ordinary brakes would use hydraulic fluid. The majority of truck air brakes are drum units; however, there is a trend increasing in popularity towards the use of disc brakes instead.

The compressed air brake system works by pulling on filtered air from the atmosphere, compressing it, and holding the air in a high-pressure reservoir at around 120 pounds per square inch of pressure. When it is actually needed for braking, the high pressure air is routed to the operating cylinders on the brakes. These actuate the braking hardware and slow the large truck down.

One of the downsides to a compressed air brake system is that the truck cannot stop as quickly. This is true to start because of the immense size and weight of the vehicle but it is not helped at all by the brake system.

Contact the Texas Truck Accident Lawyers

To learn more about the hazards and dangers of large trucks, contact the Texas 18-wheeler accident attorneys of Williams Kherkher at 1-800-220-9341.