American Brake Shoe Company
Historical Note
The American Brake Shoe (later Abex) Company was formed in 1902 from the merger of five smaller foundries that specialized in railroad brake shoes, castings and forging, as well as hydraulic equipment. The research laboratory, known as the Mahwah Research Center, from which the collection is drawn, did applied industrial research in mineral extraction, cement, construction, dredging, timber, railroad, and non-magnetic (e.g., submarine). Testing facilities included metallographic evaluation, chemical analysis, machining, heat treatment, various non-destructive methods such as x-ray testing, abrasion, physical, and mechanical analysis. Upon the purchase of Abex by Illinois Central Industries in 1990, the center was closed. The materials forming the collection were rescued from destruction by Mr. Howard Avery (1906-1996), VPI honors graduate (B.Sc. MinE 1927, M.Sc. MinE 1928), one of the center’s leading research metallurgists, with a national reputation in the field of wear-resistant and heat-resistant alloy research.
Found in 2 Collections and/or Records:
Avery-Abex Metallurgical Collection
Collection includes research data of the properties of metals conducted by The American Brake Shoe Company (later Abex). Also contains the master logbooks and listing of compositions on keypunch cards of the Battelle Institute Research Reports, and approximately 37 cu. ft. of research-related publications, reference books, and metallurgical samples. Unprocessed.