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Tech Tips

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Cummins-Meritor announced regional brake training events on Monday. The program, which focuses on maintenance and repair of heavy-duty commercial vehicle brakes, will come to 14 cities across the U.S. 

OSHA FIRE EXTINGUISHER SAFETY STANDARDS: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Learn how to avoid OSHA violations and protect your workforce with our guide to Fire Extinguishers. Discover tips for keeping your facility safe

Personal protective equipment must remain in good, safe working condition. Knowing when to replace PPE helps you avoid injuries & fatalities.

Natural Gas Vehicle Institute (NGVi) wants to bring attention to an important requirement under NFPA 52, the installation code for natural gas vehicles.

TROUBLESHOOTING AND REPAIR GUIDANCE FOR ANTILOCK BRAKES

As key systems in commercial vehicles, maintenance of antilock braking systems is vital to proper truck and trailer performance. Technicians who understand how ABS works are best prepared to service the equipment in the field and react intelligently when an ABS warning lamp illuminates.

When replacing a universal joint, experts note the importance of following manufacturer guidance, using proper tools and post-service inspection and lubrication as essential for ensuring a universal joint achieves its maximum life cycle.

Leaf springs may often be overlooked in visual inspections, experts say. Here's how to know when you should be looking for a new one.

Drivers rely on their brakes to stop their vehicle every time they depress the brake pedal, hundreds of times per day. Therefore, regular inspection of the braking system should be part of any preventive maintenance program.

For busy service technicians, tools are available for measuring a brake’s free play and stroke, as well as the do-it-yourself method of cutting a short segment of tape measure and attaching a magnet to one end.

Every year, dozens of workers die and thousands more become ill while working in hot or humid conditions. The OSHA Heat Illness Prevention campaign educates employers and workers on the dangers of working in the heat.

To save on costs, many service departments are purchasing flammable liquids such as brake cleaner, lacquer thinner, gasoline, and other flammable liquids in bulk 55-gallon drums.  While this may make economic sense, you may have to spend a bit more upfront to comply with flammable liquid storage regulations.

An El Paso metal stamping manufacturer with a history of workplace safety violations failed again to protect its workers from the dangers of moving machine parts. As a result, a worker suffered the amputation of two fingers inside a 500-ton hydraulic press.

Nearly one in 10 people endure noise levels at work loud enough to cause hearing loss while seven in 10 experience moderately loud noise levels, reports the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Yet, the bureau's Occupational Requirements Survey, published in 2019, found that more than half of the nation's manufacturing workers reported not using personal protective equipment to protect their hearing.

Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), has quite literally been all the rage for the last several years. So many articles, social media groups, forums, training classes, and podcast episodes have become dedicated to the subject. But why? For starters, in a profession where technology is always evolving, this was a big change from normal service. ADAS is not really all that new, arguably debuting back in 1999 with Mercedes-Benz “Distronic,” which used radar for adaptive cruise control (ACC). But now we are seeing it on virtually every high-line vehicle, and it's absolutely trickling down to the more economical models.

What is brake balance? A vehicle’s brakes are said to be in balance if all brakes apply and release at about the same time, with each brake developing the appropriate braking force for its weight load.
On the other hand, brake imbalance, such as when a tractor brakes faster and more aggressively than its trailer, causes rapid lining wear on the hardest-working brakes, bumping of tractors by trailers, jackknifing and panic stops with more panic than stop.

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