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Axles are an integral structural component of a wheeled vehicle. The axles maintain the position of the wheels relative to each other and to the vehicle body. Since for most vehicles the wheels are the only part touching the ground, the axles must bear the weight of the vehicle plus any cargo, as well as acceleration and braking forces. In addition to the structural purpose, axles may serve one or more of the following purposes depending on the design of the vehicle.

  • Drive

One or more axles may be an integral part of the drivetrain. A mechanical system (typically a motor) exerts a rotational force on the axle, which is transferred to the wheel(s) to accelerate the vehicle.

  • Braking

Conversely a vehicle may be slowed by applying force to brake the rotation of the axle. Consumer vehicles' brakes are part of the wheel assembly and therefore exert friction on the wheels directly, but engine braking may still be effected via the axle.

  • Steering

The front axle of most auto-mobiles is a steering axle. The vehicle is manoeuvred by controlling the direction of the front wheels' rotational axis relative to the body and rear wheels.

References / sources[]

  • extract from wikipedia, article (some of article is very poor / wrong so only part quoted)

External links[]

Smallwikipedialogo This page uses some content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Axle. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Tractor & Construction Plant Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons by Attribution License and/or GNU Free Documentation License. Please check page history for when the original article was copied to Wikia



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