ZF Services UK has taken a careful look at how it best serves its end customers and is ready with a tailored offering that recognises the needs of bus and coach operators as Andy Izatt discovered when he visited the firm’s Nottingham head office
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ZF has become a cornerstone supplier to the UK’s bus and coach industry over recent decades, but while the German foundation – this isn’t a stock market listed company – is widely regarded as a leader in automotive driveline and chassis technology, it has a diverse product portfolio that extends into rail, marine, defence, aviation and power generation as well as more general industrial applications. This is a business with a significant presence in 40 countries across Europe, Asia, America, Africa and Austalasia. It has 20 main development centres in eight of those, 120 service locations and 650 service partners.
By the end of 2017 the ZF Group employed 146,148 people and sales totalled €36.444bn. €3.172bn of that came from commercial vehicles, but that figure is dwarfed by the combined €15.209bn generated by car powertrain and chassis technology. Active and passive safety technology accounted for another €13.97bn, while aftermarket support was a very significant €3.007bn.
A total of €2.23bn was invested in research and development in 2017, up from €2bn in the previous year, and the number of people employed in that area alone rose from 14,550 to around 18,500 last year. With the global automotive market increasingly favouring electric propulsion, ZF read the indicators and already has a commercial vehicle electric drive portfolio that encompasses van, truck, bus and coach.
Product imperatives
ZF first developed an electrically driven rear axle, the EE Drive, as long ago as 1994. The current incarnation, the AxTrax electric portal rear axle designed primarily for low-floor citybuses, went through extensive field testing between 2010 and 2015 with volume production starting a year later. Adopted by vehicle manufacturers such as Daimler for the Mercedes-Benz eCitaro and Optare for its Metrodecker EV, more than 650 buses using it have already covered 35 million km.
AxTrax is a fully low-floor axle with integrated but separate, liquid-cooled, asynchronous 125kW electric wheel motors. Notably, installation space and connection points are compatible with ZF’s standard AV133 axle for conventional drivelines so retrofitting is engineered into the design.
“Up-cycling is the buzz word at the moment and our technology makes that possible,” observed Simon Ackroyd, ZF Services UK Product Support Engineer. “I think that’s really important. We trialled AxTrax extensively at Millbrook, inclusive of inclines up to 22%. Standing starts at this gradient allowed the vehicle to demonstrate the phenomenal power and torque delivery as well as the refined and confident controllability. Coach as well as citybus ratios are available.”
Compared to an AV133, AxTrax sits slightly lower so the vehicle’s saloon floor can be more accessible, the absence of a mechanical drive also increasing usable space. Individual and infinitely variable torque splitting is possible, as is installing a multiple axle drive. With its higher traction force, only one AxTrax is required either as a pusher or puller in an articulated bus and it can also be installed in the front section rather than the trailer, improving stability. Overall, the weight saving delivered by AxTrax is around 500kg.
Said Simon: “That means the vehicle can benefit from increased carrying capacity – more passengers and more stowage. It also creates the opportunity to increase battery capacity and therefore range. Electricity might come from a pantograph system, high voltage battery, or from fuel cells such as hydrogen. Whether it’s stored or from opportunity charging, we can use any of those solutions or a combination.”
Nigel Marson, ZF Services UK OE Account Manager said: “It all makes AxTrax a lot easier to install because of it’s similarity to our conventional axles. Vehicle manufacturers don’t have to redesign their products to accommodate it. It’s a very efficient solution.”
“For non low-floor applications such as coach, there’s the CeTrax central motor that drives through a standard rear axle configuration,” Simon continued. “The plan is to introduce multi staging so effectively giving it one or two-speed gearing so that it can handle higher speeds.”
A fast rotating, water-cooled, three-phase induction electric motor with an integrated one-speed planetary gear set drawn from the EcoLife gearbox, the modular CeTrax can be matched to all conventionally driven axles and requires less installation space than standard transmissions.
For heavier duty applications ZF also offers a modular hybrid version of its TraXon gearbox which it says can deliver a 7% reduction in fuel consumption. “We think TraXon Hybrid will be very good for last mile applications,” said Nigel. “A coach will be able to travel down a highway using TraXon as a conventional automated manual transmission, but for the last mile to the destination, which might be in a zero emission zone, it could potentially run fully electric. Alternatively it’s possible to use the technology to deliver a power boost so there are lower emissions when the driver initially accelerates.”
Said Simon: “While diesel power has been the standard for decades, we think that started to change in 2015 and from 2025 it really will start to disappear. We see electric drives as the future for everybody in the market.”
That said, ZF continues to refine its mechanical drive portfolio as Simon outlined. Talking about ‘start/stop’ he said: “Before ZF brought this technology to the market in the summer of 2017, we made sure that our offering was greatly optimised and therefore a future proofed solution. It’s quite arduous on components such as starter motors and alternators, which need to be more robust. That extra demand continues within the transmission itself so redesigning it to cope was the first priority. A citybus will spend between 35-45% of its time idling so there’s the potential to save a significant and quantifiable cost in fuel and reduce harmful emissions as well as noise.
“Noise pollution is another area of growing concern. Whether it’s a bus accelerating away, driving past or coming to a stop, we should consider the localised impact of this. However, after more than a decade of development using EU test procedures, we can show that a vehicle using our transmission is up to six decibels less noisy than our main competition. That effectively means that four buses fitted with EcoLife transmission actually generate similar noise levels to one utilising our competitor’s product.”
More responsive
It was an approach from FirstBus two years ago that really brought into focus at ZF Services UK, the German foundation’s wholly-owned British subsidiary, how the aftermarket needs of larger bus and coach operators could be better served through building direct relationships rather than relying on the firm’s service partner network. It was all very well being able to offer products harnessing the latest technology, but a more immediate, closer relationship would give those customers the reassurance that the support was in place when specifying ZF components in their new vehicles.
ZF Services UK has a centre at Crick in Northamptonshire adjacent to the M1 motorway where around 45 people are employed primarily in the sale and distribution of parts, but also training. If necessary, the UK-based team has the capacity to tap into a global parts network to supplement what’s held locally.
ZF Services UK’s headquarters are on the edge of Nottingham, a 100,000 square feet facility encompassing three main buildings where around 125 people provide technical support, training and sales, and where remanufacturing of transmissions and axles takes place. It has long been a remanufacturing centre of excellence in markets such as rail and power generation, even building its own test rig for wind turbine gearboxes because one wasn’t commercially available.
“As a result of securing a contract from First Bus, we spoke to others like National Express and Arriva,” said Debbie Fisher, CV Office & Service Manager. “If you’re not close to your market and you’re not close to your end customers, you can’t be reactive like you should be. That’s why ZF Services UK came back to the fore when dealing with the larger operators and we’re finding more and more are coming to us direct for their aftermarket requirements. What we’re doing now is using our service partners for diagnostic, removal and refit, but the exchange transmissions and axles are coming from Nottingham.”
Major investment at Nottingham over the past 18 months to accommodate the additional work has seen the workshop areas dedicated to commercial vehicle gearbox and axle rebuilds increased and additional technicians employed. Onsite Kanban parts supply has been enhanced from a minimum of four to eight weeks and a secondary safety stock established in the warehouse.
More than £1m has been invested in ‘off the shelf available’ gearboxes and axles – not just remanufactured units, but also new ones ordered in from ZF in Germany so potential demand for both established and recently introduced product can be met.
Debbie continued: “What we’ve done over the last 18 months is obtain fleet lists and established what’s happening in our markets – what types of gearbox and axles are being run out there – and introduced appropriate levels of stock so we’re in a position to say, Nottingham is here and we’re ready to support you. We’ve spent the last 12 months defining our stock, and are now in a position where we can confidently support the UK fleets.
“Several showcase events have been held at our Nottingham headquarters giving transparent and open access to our entire site and demonstrating exactly how we can work in partnership with end users and OEs alike.
“As well as our own progressive internal training, we also take apprentices on placements from larger end customers such as National Express West Midlands, Trent Barton and London United and send our own staff to their workshops as well. It helps through openness and transparency to build customer relationships and gives the people involved a wealth of knowledge about what’s happening in the market.”
Strong team
The importance of the UK market to ZF is underlined by Chris Adcock, ZF Services UK Managing Director, also being Head of Service Europe. Fielding a strong customer facing team has been central to developing the relationships the business is now looking to build.
As well as being General Sales Manager, Dave Wakeling is Commercial Vehicle (CV) Business Manager and Passenger Car Aftersales Manager. Reporting to him is Nigel, Debbie and Andy Derz, ZF Commercial Vehicle Account Manager, while Alex Acosta is newly appointed as Sales Manager. Also reporting to Dave Wakeling is CV Technical Manager Tim Jordan whose team of Product Support Engineers comprises Simon, Andy Parkhouse, Matt Whitehead and Tony Clowes. If a ‘hot spot’ is identified at an operator’s premises, it’s one of Tim’s team who will assist.
CV team members have primary and secondary responsibilities reflecting their different specialisms to ensure appropriate coverage is in place regardless of who’s available to respond. It can be anything from being as key account contact and dealing with new vehicle / prototype development to service delivery and quality, resolving zero and low mileage defects, axle and gearbox issues, general technical enquiries or training – but the team ethos goes further.
“This business is not just CV,” Debbie pointed out. “We’re passenger car, marine, off-highway, industrial, wind and rail too. While we all specialise in our own markets, success will be realised when we perform as a team.”
Broad support
While ZF Services UK is now focused on being more customer facing, the continuing importance of its service partner and service point networks in delivering comprehensive technical support to its wider customer base shouldn’t be underestimated.
In England it’s represented by Ecodrive Transmissions, Engineering Project Management, Paul Clark Services, Vehicle Solutions International, Optimum Drive and E Rand & Sons. Ireland has Adtec AerAuto while in Scotland there’s Drivetrain Services. Fully trained and experienced field engineers have access to the necessary diagnostics and will carry out repairs in situ where possible.
“The rate of technical development in our industry has seen an increase and a new generation of engineers needed to be trained,” said Nigel. “Tim Jordan and his team have done a great job in getting all those people to a standard where they can support ZF and meet customer requirements.
“At ZF Services UK in Nottingham, we’re not just a strong team because we’re passionate about the company. We’re also friends. ZF may be a giant business, but it still has a family feel and that’s reflected in how we go about what we do. We have all seen how ZF aftermarket requirements have changed and all know what is required to excel at this. There’s a lot of drive to make sure we get there as a brand and that our OE products are the customer’s choice.”
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