Advanced Braking Technology – Pulling out all the stops for Australian made
Advanced Braking Technology, based in Perth Western Australia, are industry leaders in the provision of braking solutions. Their Australian designed, developed and manufactured world-leading system ‘FailSafe’, is the only one of its kind. The genome of the ‘FailSafe’ was used to develop a brake calliper used on the Hawkei Protected Mobility Vehicle - Light.
Founded in 1999, Advanced Braking Technology has been a long-standing and trusted provider of braking technologies in the mining and civil construction sectors. Fitted to a range of vehicles varying in size from passenger 4WDs and utes to 30 tonne payload trucks, their solution enables these large vehicles to move around safely whilst improving performance and reducing maintenance; particularly in harsh environments like mining and tunnel construction.
According to Engineering Manager of Advanced Braking Technologies, Anthony Van Litsenborgh, operating in these environments can be challenging and brings with it a range of considerations.
‘In underground mining applications you have a lot of downhill movements and braking which generates a lot of heat in the brakes so you need something to cool it, which our system does. Also, our system is completely sealed so it’s protected from dirt and debris – both of which can cause havoc with brakes.”
Working mostly in the mining industry for over 20 years, in 2018 an opportunity arose with Thales to design and develop a prototype to test on the Hawkei.
“We have a reputation for developing local solutions for problems which larger companies may not consider,” Van Litsenborgh said.
“We really enjoy a challenge and working with complex requirements and the opportunity with Thales presented exactly that. What we designed, and subsequently delivered, was a downsized version of our existing technology in failsafe brakes, which was then used in the existing space on the vehicle.”
It’s because of this ingenuity, in addition to their world class braking system, that Thales approached Advanced Braking Technology to develop the solution for our Protected Vehicles.
“ABT were approached, and considered initially, due to their “FailSafe” brake system and mining experience” said Paul Feighan, Director Protected Vehicles. “The complexity of the task was driven by spatial constraints on the vehicle and challenging performance requirements. Their willingness to collaborate and work along side our engineering team to produce a unique calliper for the Hawkei was key.”
Working with Thales has provided Advanced Braking Technology with the opportunity to diversify outside of the mining and resourcing industries, and commit to longer term projects; an important aspect for this team who, for all their impressive R&D work and development of world-class solutions, are a relatively small team of 20 people.
“We have a mix of technical and commercial but the focus is definitely on the technical” said Ben Suda, Director of Sales and Marketing at Advanced Braking Technology.
“This aligns with the fact we consider our work environment as more an R&D facility, where we design, develop and test our solutions, so even those who work in Sales - most have a technical background or technical experience.”
Thales has a strong record of supporting innovative Australian businesses and the work with Advanced Braking Technology is testament to that. Thales values the expertise that Small to Medium Enterprises bring to our business and the work with Advanced Braking Technology is no exception.
“Thales prides itself on the quality and performance of its Australian made protected vehicles to ensure the protection of Defence personnel in areas of conflict. This high-quality standard is therefore critical to the design of our vehicles,” Feighan said.