Over the past few years, the take rate of air disc brakes (ADBs) has been steadily growing. This growth has only accelerated recently, thanks in part to the fact that many truck OEMs have made air disc brakes standard equipment. Let’s trace back to when this ‘Hotstar’ came from.
The use of air disc brakes on commercial vehicles has a long history in Europe. Although air disc brakes were researched and produced for North American automobiles in the early 1980s, the performance and durability issues at the time outweighed the benefits, and the industry quickly abandoned those early assessments. Air disc brakes, on the other hand, were commonly employed throughout Europe for all-wheel locations as recently as twenty years ago.
Because the European trucking industry and its supplier base are very different from those in North America, air disc braking technology was easily adopted. One of the most notable contrasts was that in Europe, many tractor/trailer combos were actually combinations, meaning they stayed together as a unit. While there are some jobs in North America where this is generally true (tankers), the high-population job of moving ordinary freight across the road rarely has a "married" tractor with a specific trailer. This is one of the reasons why tanker fleets were the first Class 8 category in North America to be targeted for ADB adoption by component manufacturers.
While already widely used in Europe and in select North American applications, air disc brakes are enjoying increasing popularity on North American roads among fleets and commercial vehicle owners. Formerly considered a niche technology for buses, coaches, fire trucks and other specialty applications, compressed air disc brakes are increasingly in demand for applications in road traffic. The growth in this braking technology is driven by several factors, including:
- the critical demand for brakes to respond to higher speeds and lower natural retardation;
- the increasing expectation for safety and performance;
- the need for reduced maintenance, longer service intervals, and longer lining life;
- reduced stopping distance requirements in the United States; and
- reliability improvements in disc brake technology.
Most North American nations are the primary customers adopting air disc brakes, however, its growing needs will much more likely provoke other nations to apply ADB.
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