ARMACAO DE FREIO PARA UM TRUQUE DE VAGAO FERROVIARIO

A single-cylinder, truck-mounted brake assembly for a railway vehicle truck in which low-cost, lightweight, truss-type brake beams are employed, with one beam having the single brake cylinder mounted thereon. Force-transfer levers pivotally-mounted to the respective brake beams at the beam-midpoint are interconnected by force-transmitting members that pass through openings in the bolster to move the brake beams into brake shoe/wheel engagement when a brake application is made. The brake rigging is set up so that the transfer lever bail imparted to the force-transmitting members is split. With respect to the force-transfer lever connected to the one force-transmitting member (brake cylinder), this has the effect of the brake cylinder piston skewing equally on opposite sides of the cylinder centerline to prevent piston seal leakage. In addition, diagonally-opposed lever arms of the respective force-transfer levers are greater in length than the other lever arms to obtain brake force multiplication without unbalancing the brake shoe forces. A further advantage found by making the one transfer lever arm longer than the corresponding lever arm of the other transfer lever is to split the lateral swing of the other force-transmitting member (slack adjuster) equally on opposite sides of the centerline of the bolster opening to avoid interference therebetween.