KA wins strategic important global contract

Kongsberg Automotive (KA) has been awarded the air brake and air suspension interface business for a global heavy truck manufacturer. The planned volume for the new business is 600.000 units per year, with 4-8 interfaces pr. vehicle depending on the complexity of the truck.

The value of the contract is estimated to be EUR 25 million or approximately NOK 215 million. Start of production is set to 2011 and the contract will run for 7 years.

Last year, KA launched a new couplings program for compressed air distribution for the global truck industry. The program consists mainly of composite material which offers reduced weight, innovative and flexible technical solutions and more efficient assembly at truck manufacturers. The interfaces are a further development into the air brake and air suspension system of the truck, which allows KA to take a larger responsibility of the design of the vehicles compressed air system. The average weight reduction is 50% compared to current solutions, hence it will also have a positive impact on the trucks fuel consumption. The flexibility in the design of the interfaces has lead to multifunctional technical solutions and thus reduced the assembly time and total installed cost on the truck.

“It is our strategy to take more responsibility of the products and systems we are delivering to our customers by introducing new, innovative technical solutions, says Håkon Amundsen (photo), Vice President Sales & Marketing. This award comes as a direct result of this approach. The new interfaces we are offering provide preassembled solutions which reduce the number of components and thus the complexity of truck assembly at our customers. This is exactly what the customers are looking for”.

Source: KA