Development of a Single-Shoe Leading-Trailing Drum Brake—Code Named Fuchsia 2000-01-0443

This paper describes a unique leading-trailing service drum brake design, code named Fuchsia, comprising a one-piece shoe and backing plate arrangement with an integral shoe platform. Because of the integral construction, Fuchsia offers a significant reduction in parts over the conventional drum brake design---it consolidates 16 standard components into one---resulting in a potential cost advantage over benchmarked products. It also offers benefits in performance stability, vibration resistance, low residual drag, low parasitic losses, and low operating threshold when compared to traditional designs. This paper gives an account of the key manufacturing processes, characteristics and performance testing of the brake and the incorporation of a extended-life lining configuration.