A new Sachs clutch fork kit for ZF AS-Tronic gearboxes

   Interview with Romain Laporte, marketing director for ZF Services

For the launch of the clutck fork kit by Sachs on the European market, Romain Laporte, marketing director for ZF Services in France since April 2013, in charge of the after-market of independent spare parts, talked with us.

Planet-trucks.com : Can you introduce the company ?
Romain Laporte : Since buying TRW on May 15th, 2015, ZF is now part of the three most important world automobile parts manufacturer.  Present in 40 countries and with 134.000 employees for a turnover of 30 billion euros, we are one of the most important suppliers of transmission systems in the world, for light and industrial vehicles as well as the non-automobile market. We are world leaders for suspensions (suspension-direction), and we offer bridges and axles for industrial vehicles chassis (trucks, bus, coach, construction and agricultural machines). The independent spare parts division, an entity that distributes all our products to all the makes, had a 1.8 billion euros turnover in 2014.

Planet-trucks.com : What makes do you carry for trucks ?
Romain Laporte : ZF Services commercialises 4 makes, for light vehicles as well as industrial vehicles : ZF for gearboxes and decks and axle systems, Sachs for the clutch and the shock absorbers, Lemförder for the suspension-direction, and ZF Parts for the gearbox change kits. For the French market, we have an exclusive distribution agreement for hatchback jacks and Stabilus trunks. For the transmission and suspension system products, we are number 1 regarding truck's original equipments in the world. In 2014, we produced 1.6 million clutches for this market, 9,2 million shocks absorbers and 9,9 million suspension-direction pieces.

Planet-trucks.com : What products and services do you commercialise for trucks ?
Romain Laporte : For transmissions, we have the mecanical gearboxes Ecolite (light tonnage), Ecomid (average tonnage) and Ecosplit (heavy tonnage), the robotised or automated gearboxes AS-Tronic Lite (light tonnage), AS-Tronic Mid (average tonnage) and AS-Tronic (heavy tonnage), and the automatic gearboxes Ecomat and its successor, Ecolife. As for clutches, we commercialise complete clutch kits (mecanism, disc and stop) and retail sale of components. We also are the only ones on the market of the independent aftermarket spare part for a range of steering wheels in two parts, with a spring system that soften the engine's vibrations. We gained this specific knowledge as mass-producers of this part.  Regarding the chassis, we offer different decks and axles for trucks. Finally, for the suspension-direction parts, our catalogue includes ball joints, arms, torque rods, etc. Our clients can exclusively get 4-point torque rods, a rear suspension system on the MAN TGA and MAN TGX.

Planet-trucks.com : What are your advantages compared to the other spare parts manufacturers ?
Romain Laporte : Since we use the same production lines than those used for the pieces of the 7 important trucks manufacturers, we offer the independent spare part market a quality choice of original products, in accordance with the manfacturer's technical specifications. As a world leader, we are the part manufacturer with the most important range of original products for the aftermarket. We try to offer complete repair solutions for the aftermarket : apart from the suspension-direction repair kits, we just launched a clutch fork kit with a unique reference that fits every vehicle equipped with the AS-Tronic 12 or 16 gears. This range of clutch forks will soon have more references by the end of 2015. In 2016, it will expand to non-ZF transmissions, certain manufacturers, such as Mercedes or Volvo Trucks for exemple, who manufacturer their own gearboxes.

Planet-trucks.com : Do you also have Sachs clutch kits for Euro 6 trucks ?
Romain Laporte : Yes, we were the first on the independent aftermarket to offer clutch kits made for Euro 6 engines, which allows mechanics and independent stockers that work with us to have a competitive advantage. We cover 70% of the Euro 6 fleet, with 100% of the Renault Trucks T, Renault Trucks K, Renault Trucks C and Renault Trucks D ranges and the Scania R, Scania G and Scania P ranges. We also cover the DAF CF, DAF LF, Mercedes Actros, Mercedes Antos, Mercedes Arocs, Mercedes Econic, Volvo FH, Volvo FM, Iveco Eurocargo, MAN TGX and MAN TGS ranges.