Source: CONCRETE PRODUCER MAGAZINE
Publication date: January 1, 2007
By Paul Abelson
Ready-mix trucks and any other equipment you operate when highways and streets have been treated with snow and ice removal chemicals will be susceptible to rust and corrosion as never before.
Roy Gambrell, maintenance director for Truck It, a small trucking company in Franklin, Ky., and a member of the board of directors of the Technology and Maintenance Council (TMC), was the first to identify “rust jacking” and bring it to the trucking industry's attention.
When investigating brake shoe failures after only 18 months of over-the-road service, he noticed edge cracks in his brake linings that initially looked like heat damage. Eventually, the cracks deepened enough to put the units out of service. When Gambrell pulled his wheels, the cracks went clear across the brake shoes.
He removed the shoes and found rust build-up as high as ¼ inch on the shoe tables. Rust forms an A-shaped wedge that literally jacks up the brake shoe. Held in place by rivets, the shoes crack under the jacking force of the rust, just as expanding ice can crack the steel hull of a ship.
TMC began an investigation. Members found premature rusting was destroying equipment at a rate never seen before. Damage was not confined to brakes. Virtually any unprotected metal is affected, including steel, iron, and aluminum.
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