Product Description
Raybestos-Manhattan, later Raymark Industries, allegedly manufactured a distinct family of clutch facings dimensioned for heavy construction and agricultural equipment — a product tier separate from its passenger-car and light-truck clutch lines. According to publicly filed U.S. asbestos personal-injury and wrongful-death litigation, these heavy-equipment facings were supplied as woven asbestos-yarn discs, molded chrysotile-phenolic discs, and multi-plate wet-clutch friction wafers sized to match master-clutch and transmission-clutch assemblies on Caterpillar, John Deere, International Harvester, Case, Allis-Chalmers, Massey-Ferguson, Ford, Oliver, Minneapolis-Moline, Fiat-Allis, Terex, Euclid, and Komatsu equipment.
Plaintiffs allegedly identified Raybestos-Manhattan facings on master clutches of crawler dozers, wheel loaders, scrapers, motor graders, and off-highway trucks; on transmission clutches of self-propelled combines, cotton pickers, and forage harvesters; and on power-take-off (PTO) clutches of farm tractors. Publicly filed litigation records allegedly reference Raybestos-Manhattan clutch facings distributed through original-equipment dealer parts networks, independent construction-equipment parts houses, and agricultural implement dealerships across the Midwest, South, and Farm Belt.
Workers Exposed
According to publicly filed U.S. asbestos litigation, workers allegedly exposed to Raybestos-Manhattan heavy-equipment clutch facings included Caterpillar dealer mechanics, John Deere agricultural service technicians, International Harvester Farmall shop mechanics, Case-IH combine specialists, and independent construction-equipment fitters. Plaintiffs allegedly described clutch overhauls that required splitting the tractor or dozer frame, exposing the dry clutch pack, unbolting and hammering worn facings free of steel driven plates, drilling and countersinking new facings for rivet installation, and hand-sanding facings to blueprint thickness. These operations allegedly generated visible chrysotile dust in the immediate breathing zone.
Bystander workers — parts personnel, welders, apprentices, farmers assisting a shop repair, and equipment operators standing by during roadside clutch replacement — allegedly inhaled fibers released by the work. Farm-implement dealership shops in Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, Kansas, and Nebraska allegedly handled Raybestos-Manhattan clutch facings on a seasonal basis tied to planting and harvest cycles.