An air disc brake for a road vehicle is proposed, having a mechanism for causing retraction of the brake pads when the brakes are no longer applied, to avoid parasitic drag caused by continued contact of the brake pads against the brake disc. The proposed mechanism includes a pin located in a fixed position relative to one brake pad, and extending through an aperture in the other brake pad. A coil spring is supported on the pin, and pushes the brake pads apart. Where the pin extends through the aperture the extent of the pin provides an indication of the wear state of the pads and disc, which is visible through apertures in the wheel rim.

An axle disconnect assembly, including: a housing; a shaft; a sleeve non-rotatably connected to the shaft and including teeth; a shift assembly; and at least one resilient element directly connected to the shift assembly. In a first blocked mode, the teeth of the sleeve contact the power output without meshing with teeth of the power output, the shift assembly deflects the at least one resilient element to at least one first shape, and the at least one resilient element urges the sleeve against the power output. In a second blocked mode, the teeth of the sleeve are meshed with the teeth of the power output, a force blocks disengagement of the sleeve from the power output, the shift assembly deflects the at least one resilient element to at least one second, and the at least one resilient element urges the sleeve away from the power output without displacing the sleeve.

A vehicle component such as an axle spindle or suspension beam (3) is connected to a tubular vehicle axle (1) by fitting a connector sleeve (2) onto the axle and subjecting the assembly to a crimping operation in which plural depressions (206,2018) are formed by indentation in the connector sleeve and the axle wall at the connection region (11,12) to fix the connector sleeve on the tubular axle. In the described proposals a solid lubricant (4) such as molybdenum disulphide is applied at the connection region between the connector sleeve (2) and axle (1), before crimping. The further vehicle component (3) is then connected to the connector sleeve (2) by welding.

A constant velocity universal joint includes an inner ring and an outer ring. A cage is disposed between an outer spherical surface of the inner ring and an inner spherical surface of the outer ring, and has windows in which respective balls are received. The cage has ball contact surface areas with which the balls come into contact, and includes soft portions that are lower in hardness than the ball contact surface areas. The soft portions are formed by local heat treatment at portions of the windows that are kept out of contact with the balls or surface portions around the windows.

Disclosed is an articulated support arm for an elongated flexible medical instrument, including: a segment rotating about an axis of rotation, a radial brake for preventing rotation of the segment about the axis of rotation, including: a supply of hydraulic fluid, a piston whose stroke along the direction of the axis of rotation, due to the pressure of the hydraulic fluid, prevents rotation of the segment about the axis of rotation, the piston being an annular piston having a hollow center about the axis of rotation, the supply of hydraulic fluid passing through the hollow center.

A method of making a brake pad retention plate and a brake pad retention plate is provided. The method includes upsetting a brake pad facing surface on the retention plate to form a first set of rows having a gutter, or a negative feature such as a depression in the primary plane, in the surface of the retention plate and a tooth feature on a first side of the gutter. The surface of the retention plate is upset to form a second set of rows having a gutter and a tooth feature on the second side of the gutter. The second set of rows being a single row. The second set of rows is placed adjacent to or between the first set of rows. A mechanical press is used to deform the tooth to form a base portion and a mezzanine portion extending over a portion of the gutter.

A speed-reducing or -increasing apparatus, with first and second crown gears facing one another, with a cam unit that causes the first crown gear to incline with respect to the second crown gear so that the first crown gear meshes with the second crown gear, that causes the first crown gear to precess in such a manner as to move the meshing position, and couples to an input or output shaft. A rolling element is between the cam unit and the first crown gear, and the cam unit includes a first member that couples to the input or output shaft and a second member made of steel and including a rolling element rolling portion where the rolling element rolls, the second member configured to be incapable of rotating relatively to the first member, and at least part of the first member having a lower specific gravity than the second member.

A driver for coupling a driving device and a driven device includes a core defining a plurality of corner chamfers and a casing formed on and encasing the core. The casing has a contoured perimeter surface and a variable casing thickness, and is compressible during an interference fit installation to a coupling socket to provide a non-lubricated coupling which has zero backlash and substantially no running noise. The core is made of a metal-based material and includes a shaft bore for receiving an input shaft. In an illustrative example, the driver core is made of a stainless steel core and the casing is made of a high wear thermoset urethane material. The metal core can be recycled from the coated driver by removal of the polymeric casing, then recoated with a new casing to form a new coated driver including the recycled metal core.

A shaft coupling includes a drive hub that is coupled to a drive shaft to rotate integrally with the drive shaft, a driven hub that is coupled to a driven shaft to rotate integrally with the driven shaft, and a rotation transmission portion that transmits rotation between the drive hub and the driven hub. A dynamic vibration absorber is integrally coupled to a section of at least one of the drive hub and the driven hub. The section is an uninvolved section that is not involved in a torsional stiffness of the whole shaft coupling.

Brake pads are prepared using a LS (Low Steel) or NAO (Non-Asbestos Organics) type friction material formulation and at least one friction surface of a brake disc intended to cooperate in use with a brake pad that is coated with an anti-wear and anti-corrosion coating with adequate plasticity in order to have a reduced propensity to form micro-cracks under conditions of tribo-mechanical stress, chosen from the amongst the group consisting in: particles of chromium carbide (Cr.sub.3C.sub.2) dispersed within a metallic matrix consisting of an alloy of NiCr; particles of a combination of several metallic materials in order to create a metallic compound consisting of an alloy of FeNiCrMoSiC (iron-nickel-chromium-molybdenum-silicon-carbon).