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1.2014 THE ZF MAGAZINE THE ZF MAGAZINE BRAZIL ALWAYS ON THE GO PLUG-IN HYBRID Powertrain of the future DIVERSITY Victory through variety TECHNOLOGY The art of lightweight design THE ZF MAGAZINE 1.2014

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1.2014THE ZF MAGAZINETHE ZF MAGAZINE

BRAZIL

ALWAYS ON THE GO

PLUG-IN HYBRIDPowertrain of the future

DIVERSITYVictory through variety

TECHNOLOGYThe art of lightweight design

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E Z

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INE

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1.2014

Now on iPad and iPhoneTo accompany the print edition of drive, ZF also publishes a digital edition in the form

of an app for iPad and iPhone. The app features bonus multimedia content such as vide os to accompany our cover story on Brazil, plus interactive graphics to illustrate our feature on hybrid drive systems. The free app is available right now from the App Store.

Inspiring

communication

Every year, the LACP presents

the Inspire Awards for the world’s

best corporate publications – and in

2013, ZF media were among the

prizewinners. Both drive magazine and

the drive app took Gold awards in

this prestigious U.S.

competition.

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3

There is no longer any doubt that human mobility is undergoing a radical transformation. This upheaval is largely driven by changes in c ustomer expectations: we are observing a shift in what people want and e xpect from their cars across all parts of s ociety. Where interest once focused on high performance and sporty handling, now drivers are prioritizing net-working, communication and safety features such as assistance with lane changes and emergency braking. At the same time, environmental legislators around the world are setting ever more stringent emissions targets. These can only be achieved by using new tech-nologies that will make vehicles more energy-effi cient and environmentally acceptable. Hybrid systems, electric powertrains and connected cars are already having a major impact on market trends.

As a trusted partner to the world’s automakers, we are called upon to develop ever more sophisticated technology for cars and commercial vehicles alike. This we can only do by raising our skills and expertise

EDITORIAL

in the technologies of the future – such as electrical and electronic engineering, sensors and lightweight construction – to the same high standards we have a lready achieved in traditional driveline and chassis engineering. As a technology company, this is both a challenge and a huge opportunity for us.

Our new and even more sophisticated plug-in h ybrid unit represents one response to this chal-lenge. The all-in-one system intelligently combines performance with eco-friendliness, and you can read about it in this issue’s main technical feature, in which we also explore the beginnings of hybrid technology at ZF not so very long ago. By contrast, our decision to enter the South American market by setting up an op-eration in Brazil dates back more than half a century. ZF now has four production facilities in the country, which has grown to become the world’s fourth largest automotive nation. We paid a visit to Brazil a few weeks before the Soccer World Cup, and our article paints a portrait of this dynamic international market.

“Never before in automotive history has our mobility been subject to

such profound change. For ZF, this is both a challenge and a huge opportunity.”

ZF CEO DR. STEFAN SOMMER

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12GOING HYBRIDIn Formula One, hybrid power units are raring to go. Elsewhere, they’ve already arrived.

28BRAZILThe ultimate urban mobility challenge? We visit the megacity of São Paulo.

38BUS BOOMIn Germany, intercity buses are a new, inexpensive way to travel.

44LOSING WEIGHTExperts at the ZF Compo sites Tech Center are develop-ing all-new produc-tion methods.

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CONTENTS

TECHNOLOGY 12 HYBRID IS HOT! Plug-in hybrids combine the

advantages of internal combustion engines and electric motors in a single, superior power unit.

17 TWO HEARTS BEATING AS ONE With an all-in-one system consisting

of transmission and electric motor, ZF has the ideal technology for modern plug-in hybrid powertrains.

44 THE ART OF LIGHTWEIGHT DESIGN Less weight means lower fuel consumption and fewer emissions. ZF is developing ultra-lightweight components for series production.

50 SMART DAMPING Soft for comfort, hard for safety:

ZF’s adaptive damper system CDC 1XL can do both.

52 ROOMS ON WHEELS Are cars turning into smartphones on

wheels? That’s not going far enough, argues Till Grusche in his essay.

MOBILITY 26 ON THE ROAD AGAIN Eight hours a day at the wheel, and

then what? A ZF study investigates the working lives of truck drivers.

38 ON TOURIntercity buses are trendy! Who’s traveling on them, and what can they expect to fi nd on board?

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY

22 THE HI-TECH WAY TO FARM To feed the world’s hungry, there’s

an urgent need for state-of-the-art agricultural machinery. We discuss the latest technologies.

GLOBALIZATION 28 BRAZIL – ALWAYS ON THE GO The country hosting the Soccer World

Cup is also the world’s fourth-largest automotive market and the location of ZF’s oldest international operation. drive paid a visit.

WORKING ENVIRONMENT 54 DIVERSITY IS KEY Mixed teams work together more

harmoniously and more successfully: the true signifi cance of diversity.

MAGAZINE 6 NEWS Wuppertal’s monorail – New vehicles

– ZF Forum – ZF Music Award – Consolidated accounts – Partner to U.S. motorsport – New plants in India and Russia

58 YESTERDAY AND TODAY ZF has been building tractor

transmissions for 75 years. Modern models have 32 forward and 32 reverse speeds.

59 SERVICE Masthead and subscriptions

You’ll fi nd more info on selected stories in this issue in our

free app for iPad and iPhone, available at

www.zf.com/drive-app

This icon shows you where to find the app.

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NEWS

More power to an i ndustrial landmark!Legendary choreographer Pina Bausch danced in it; an elephant once rode in it – and then leapt out into the River Wupper. Since its maiden voyage in 1901, the Wuppertal Suspension Railway in Germany has seen plenty of action! The unique transport system has been protected by a preservation order since 1997, but the suspended monorail has been a local landmark for much longer than that. In mid-2015, the 40-year-old cars are scheduled to be replaced by brand new trains. The transmission for the new cars (inset) was developed by ZF especially for the railway. They are ultralight, extremely stable, quiet and energy-effi cient. And thanks to a high overall gearing ratio, they also convert the electric motor’s rotational velocity into speed with exceptional effi ciency.

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1 The RA 1804 tractor built by Chinese

agricultural machinery manufacturer Chery is

equipped with ZF’s T-7232 tractor transmission.

The unit’s 40 forward and 40 reverse gears ensure

power is transmitted perfectly. Controlled by

proportional valves, ZF’s powershift technology

means gearshifts remain precise even under load.

2 In the new C-Class from Mercedes-Benz,

ZF’s 6-speed manual transmission is easy to use

and extremely effi cient. The new series features

other ZF technology, too, including chassis and

electronic components, plus the energy-effi cient

Servolectric electric power steering system.

3 The Tata Nano Twist comes with ZF chassis

components and an electric power steering system

from ZF Lenksysteme. The steering-column version

of Servolectric ensures the Indian subcompact is

easy to drive at any speed and on all road surfaces,

with a turning circle of just four meters (13 feet).4 ZF supplies Dutch manufacturer Terberg with

the short version of the 5WG191 transmission for

the YT 222 yard trac tor, which has fi ve forward

and three reverse speeds plus a converter lockup

clutch for high fuel effi ciency. Yard tractors are

special heavy-duty tractors used to move trailers in

distribution centers and ports.

5 The new cars for the Los Angeles Metro

subway, built by Kinkisharyo, feature lightweight

transmissions that reduce the overall weight by

15 percent. Developed in Friedrichs hafen, the

transmissions are built at ZF’s Gainesville plant.

ZF is using aluminum transmission housings for

the fi rst time in the U.S.

AUTOMOTIVATED BY ZF TECHNOLOGY

NEW VEHICLES

From Chinese tractor to Indian subcompact, from Los Angeles metro train

to German electromobile – all these recently launched vehicles are equipped with ZF technology.

6 The new BMW i3 is fi tted with a ZF

“shift-by-wire” gearshift system, with speeds

selected using a rotary switch mounted directly on

the steering column. The switch can be toggled

forward or backward to set the direction of travel.

The electric vehicle also has ZF chassis and electronic

components on board.

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2

1

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NEWS

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“As everyone knows, ZF is something special

in Germany’s corporate landscape.”

WINFRIED KRETSCHMANN,

MINISTER PRESIDENT OF

BADEN-WÜRTTEMBERG,

AT THE ZF FORUM

CORNERSTONE CEREMONY.

The 5,000-euro ZF Music Award for 2014 was presented to pianist Aaron Pilsan (photo) from Dornbirn (Vorarlberg/Austria). With a soulful performance at the piano competition’s fi nal concert in Graf-Zeppelin-Haus in Friedrich-shafen, the 19-year-old prevailed against strong competition and made a profound impression on the audience with his masterly interpretations of Chopin’s Etudes and Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy. Second and third prizes went to Alina Bercu from Romania and Wei Cao from China. This was the seventh time the ZF Art Foundation has presented the ZF Music Award. The public piano competition takes place every two years, and previous winners include renowned pianists such as Herbert Schuch and Alexej Gorlatch.

Soulful performanceZF MUSIC AWARD

The stainless-steel cartridge contains an employee ID card, a Graf Zeppelin medal and a number of other things: 12 months after breaking ground, the ZF Forum building’s cornerstone was laid in the presence of Baden-Württemberg’s Minister President Winfried Kretschmann. The company’s new headquarters – which has a total area of 30,000 square meters (323,000 square feet) – will not only house 600 head-offi ce administrative staff, but also an exhibition space, an in-house training center, plus the Knowledge Workshop and Student Research Center. “Our new ZF Forum should help make technology easier to understand,” explained CEO Stefan Sommer. The opening of the modern, energy-effi cient building is scheduled to coincide with ZF’s Centenary Celebration in 2015.

ZF FORUM

On the occasion of the cornerstone laying ceremony, ZF CEO Stefan Sommer (left) presented ZF’s latest products to Baden-Württem berg’s Minister President Winfried Kretschmann.

Understanding technology

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NEWS

Since the start of the 2014 season, ZF has been offi cial series partner to the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship (TUSC), the most important sports car racing series in North America, with a total of 12 seasonal races in the U.S. and Canada. Audi, Aston Martin, Ferrari, Porsche and many of the other cars appearing on the starting grid in the Daytona Prototype category already rely on ZF clutches and shock absorbers, as well as trackside technical support from ZF Race Engineering. “For ZF, the series represents the perfect platform for demonstrating the technical excellence of our products,” explained ZF CEO Stefan Sommer.

Fast start in U.S. motorsportSERIES PARTNERSHIP

ZF is constructing a new building in Chakan industrial park in Pune, India, which will house the Indian units of the Car Powertrain and Commercial Vehicle Technology divisions, as well as ZF Services, under one roof. The building is scheduled to open in early 2015. ZF’s produc-tion facility in Naberezhnye Chelny, Russia, is a lready in operation: the joint venture between ZF and Russia’s largest commercial v ehicle manu-facturer, Kamaz, celebrated the offi cial opening of a modern plant for building Ecomid (photo) and Ecosplit commercial vehicle transmissions. The plant has an area of roughly 215,300 square feet.

New plantsINDIA AND RUSSIA

The ZF Group fi nished fi scal year 2013 with total sales of 16.8 billion euros – eight percent up on 2012. As at year-end 2013, the company’s global workforce numbered around 72,600 employees. Capital expenditure (on tangible assets) over the last fi scal year came to 954 million euros, while expenditure on research and develop ment (R&D) totaled 836 million euros – nine percent higher than in the previous fi scal year.

Another good yearCONSOLIDATED ACCOUNTS

550people

will be employed at ZF’s new sites

in Pune and Naberezhnye

Chelny.

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12 1.2014

Once hybrid power units take the lead in Formula One, they’ll boost the development of electrically driven powertrains in ordinary vehicles. Plug-in hybrids are becoming increasingly popular because

they combine the advantages of both types of power unit: the range of an internal combustion engine with the reduced emissions

of an electric motor. Oh, and they’re really good fun to drive.

HYBRID IS HOT!

By Joachim Becker

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TECHNOLOGY

The turbocharged, electrically assisted power units used in Formula One cars can generate up to 850 bhp.

Hybrid engines in Formula One

Starting this season, all Formula One cars will be driving on fully integrated hybrid power units – a radical transformation of the top class in motorsport. The era of howling eight-cylinder engines is over...

 T he Formula One racing cars accelerate rapidly down the straight and sizzle past the spectators on the stands. What’s missing? The tradi-

tional scream of overstressed engines. The 2014 season is a true turning point for this highest class of motorsport – because the cars on the circuit are running on turbo charged gasoline e ngines assisted by new electric motors and electronics.

Unlike the old Kinetic Energy Recov-ery System (KERS), the new ERS can process heat as well as kinetic energy. This is used to give big short-term boosts to the performance of the cars’ gasoline engines, which have a maximum capac-ity of 1.6 liters, as well as other limits. Thanks to hybrid technology, this year’s racing machines will achieve similar standards of performance as in previous seasons while consuming less than half the fuel. Hybrid systems will also help them adhere to the rigorous fuel con-sumption limits imposed by the new rules – and lower their noise levels, too.

But hybrid vehicles aren’t just reducing the background noise at racetracks. Above all, they’re reducing our dependency on fossil fuels, as well as air pollution in cities around the world. What’s more, customers enjoy driving them – and also enjoy the feel-good factor that comes from adopting drive technology with potential to change the future. The all-electric Tesla Model S, for example, is already off ering serious competition to other premium carmakers on the U.S. West Coast. Around 22,500 of these electric sedans were sold in 2013 – an astoundingly successful fi rst year. Since 2010, the top seller on the list of all-electric vehicles has been the Nissan Leaf, with t otal global sales of around 100,000 units.

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14 1.2014

The Formula One racing teams are not alone: German carmakers have just launched a large-scale electric off ensive, with plans to bring at least 14 new elec-tric vehicles to market by 2015. Earlier electric cars, with their conventional steel bodies and the considerable extra weight added by ponderous battery systems, were simply too heavy to off er a practical driv-ing range. Smart, lightweight design is the answer: as the equation “less weight = more range” suggests, any weight savings in chassis or bodywork have an immediate positive impact on driving distance, as well as payload. The new BMW i3, for e xample, off sets the weight of its 230-kilo-gram (500-pound plus) battery with a brand-new vehicle architecture based on aluminum and carbon fi ber. ZF’s all-elec-tric innovation prototype is another excel-lent demonstration of how lightweight chassis construction methods are enhanc-ing both the range and handling of modern electric vehicles.

Technology of the future: plug-in hybridBut at present, it’s plug-in hybrids that ap-pear to have the best market prospects. Plug-in hybrids are vehicles that not only combine an internal combustion engine with an automatic electric power train, but also have batteries that can be recharged from a standard household power supply. Thanks to these batteries – which are sig-nifi cantly larger than the ones found in existing mild and full hybrid vehicles – they are perfectly capable of making rea-sonably long journeys at speeds of up to 70 mph (120 km/h) on electric power alone. The benefi ts of plug-in hybrids are most obvious in city traffi c, however, because they allow you to drive for up to 50 kilome-ters (30 miles) without noise or exhaust emissions. These features may well turn plug-in hybrids into the success story of tomorrow – because air pollution is now a major health hazard in cities around the world. According to Germany’s Federal Environment Agency, more than half of

the air-quality measuring stations close to traffi c in Germany’s conurbations showed that nitrogen dioxide levels exceeded the permissible annual average limits in 2013. Now countries around the world are intro-ducing more stringent emissions legisla-tion, in the hope of improving the air q uality in cities and built-up areas.

In city traffi c, plug-in hybrids can drive up to 30 miles

without noise or e xhaust emissions.But even the most effi cient engine tech-

nologies and very best exhaust-gas treat-ment systems can scarcely prevent conven-tionally powered vehicles from emitting pollutants. Neither gasoline nor diesel en-gines are able to run at their most effi cient in city traffi c, characterized as it is by fl uc-tuating speeds and frequent stops at traffi c lights. The most obvious and sensible way to reduce this pollution for city dwellers would be to introduce quiet, locally emis-sion-free, electrically powered vehicles.

The new hybrids aren’t just attracting drivers because of the virtuous feelings a ssociated with lower emissions – they also deliver impressive starting torque from standstill. In the upcoming plug-in hybrid version of the Audi A3, for example, the hybrid system’s 204 horsepower easily dis-guises the additional weight of the electric drive (200 kilograms or 450 pounds). The new car’s batteries sit above the rear axle: once they’re charged, the plug-in hybrid is good for 50 kilometers (30 miles) of all- electric driving before the turbocharged 1.4- liter gasoline engine takes over and e xtends the driving range to more conven-tional distances. What’s more, the electric motor provides some extra “tailwind” when starting from traffi c lights or overtaking

other vehicles – thanks to this electric boost, the car actually feels as if it has two extra cylinders u nder the hood.

Why couldn’t carmakers have delivered this much fun and frugality earlier? Surely it would have been feasible? After all, Audi developed the world’s fi rst production hy-brid, the Audi duo, back in 1996. But it didn’t exactly leap off the shelves: back then, the batteries alone weighed 400 kilo-grams (nearly 900 pounds) and the price, at around 60,000 deutschmarks (roughly 42,000 dollars) was far higher than con-ventional models in the same class. In the end, it was Toyota’s impressive persistence that persuaded the market of the dual drive’s benefi ts: the Japanese company has sold more than six million hybrid vehicles since 1998. The latest version of the best-selling Prius – due in 2015 – will use lith-ium-ion batteries, which weigh less but boast signifi cantly higher energy density. By 2020, the world’s top battery makers are expecting to see some major advances in battery technology – the next generation of lithium-ion cells should be twice as powerful as current systems.

Developments in battery technologyIt’s a fact that heavy, expensive batteries have always been the Achilles’ heel of l ocally emission-free mobility. The fi rst batteries only had one thousandth of the energy density of liquid fuels. Even now, the practical range of most all-electric v ehicles is less than 150 kilometers (95 miles), and they can only travel such dis-tances if they’re fully charged – which takes time – and the weather is mild. Poor weather conditions and low temperatures mean batteries have to be “conditioned” – in subzero temperatures, electric cars with cold batteries lose much of their available c apacity. By the end of the decade, practi-cal ranges of more than 200 kilometers (125 miles) should start to enhance the credibility of all-electric vehicles.

Even so, this only really applies to rela-tively lightweight city runabouts. Larger

Hybrid facts and fi gures

In the info bars on the right and on the following pages, you’ll fi nd milestones in the history of hybrids, information on sales of plug-in hybrids, and details of vehicles equipped with ZF’s hybrid technology:

Audi duoThe world’s fi rst

p roduction hybrid.

1 9 9 6

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TECHNOLOGY

(Photos from top) ZF technology features in:VW Jetta Hybrid (hybrid module), Audi Q5 hybrid quattro and BMW Active Hybrid 5 (both with 8-speed full-hybrid transmissions).

High torque from a standing start: one of the more

seductive features of electric power units.

Renault Elect’roadFirst production plug-in

hybrid in the world.

2 0 0 3Mercedes-Benz

Mercedes-Benz was the fi rst automaker to install one

of ZF’s hybrid modules, in the premium S-Class hybrid.

2 0 0 9

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16 1.2014

cars consume more energy, which means they need much greater battery capacity. So for medium-sized cars upward, the most effi cient and convenient solution lies in an ingenious combination of electric m otor with internal combustion engine (ICE): in plug-in hybrids, carbon-based fuel is the ideal energy store for longer distances, supplemented by a zero-emis-sion power unit for urban travel.

A series of test drives around Stuttgart in Germany recently demonstrated the potential energy savings that result when the respective strengths of each type of drive are combined and optimized. Engi-neers compared the performance of vari-ous (plug-in) hybrids over a 65-kilometer (40-mile) route mixing city traffi c with country roads and stretches of freeway. The results were surprising, even for out-and-out piston heads.

Turn off the gas!Whereas a traditional full-hybrid system can save up to a quarter of the fuel required by a conventional ICE, plug-in hybrids can cut fuel consumption by as much as half. The reason is simple: the ICE is switched off as often as possible – not just at traffi c lights, but also when freewheeling. U sing energy from the heavy-duty traction bat-tery, a powerful electric motor is capable of acting as the primary propulsion unit over roughly one quarter of the 40-mile route. When the ICE runs at all, it’s generally working at its most fuel-effi cient output level. What’s more, some of the kinetic en-ergy produced during “boosting” phases

vehicles are exempt from congestion charges, or where they are entitled – as in California – to use lanes reserved exclu-sively for electric vehicles.

Complying with CO2 limits for fl eetsThis is no science-fi ction fantasy: the plug-in hybrid trend is steadily gaining momen-tum. First, because relatively few drivers want to sacrifi ce comfort, range and con-venience by switching over to all-electric cars. Second, because plug-in hybrids combine the advantages of both types of drive in a very convincing way by using their respective strengths where it makes sense to do so. Third, because there’s growing political pressure to improve air quality in inner cities in particular – in c ities like Beijing and Shanghai, strict lim-its are being placed on the number of car registrations: only (part-)electric vehicles are exempt. And fi nally, it’s clear that for premium carmakers in particular, there’s no way to avoid the combination of ICE and electric motor if they are to meet fu-ture CO2 emission limits for vehicle fl eets. The fact that the electric boost not only enhances effi ciency but makes driving more fun is a wholly serendipitous but very welcome side-eff ect of this fuel-effi -cient powertrain concept. ■

can be recovered – the more powerful the battery, the more energy is recovered. This fl exibility – from frugal to feisty – can be extended even further by using plug-in hybrids over short distances between re-charging points. For example, by recharg-ing the battery after making a typical com-muter’s journey of 20 kilometers (12 miles), you can cut total fuel consumption by 83 percent, because the ICE only fi res up for 16 percent of the 40-mile distance.

Plug-in hybrids are highly effi cient all-rounders that combine the space and long-distance convenience of a tourer with a clean environmental conscience. In inner cities with low-emission zones or areas where ICEs are prohibited, a dual-drive car can drive on pure electric power, then switch over to the onboard fuel tank once it’s back on the freeway. If your smart sat-nav knows where you’re going, the system can either make sure the battery has enough capacity for the fi nal, urban stage of the journey, or it can recharge it from the kinetic energy produced by braking, using the electric motor as a generator, so you can drive through the city emission-free. This superior form of locomotion be-comes even more attractive in places – such as London – where drivers of electric

Clean green conscience, good long range: plug-in hybrids are proving just how practical they are.

2 0 0 9 2 0 0 9Toyota Prius PHV

First presented at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor

Show, the plug-in PHV is based on the third

generation of Toyota’s successful Prius hybrids.

BMW Active Hybrid 7The fi rst production vehicle to use ZF’s 8-speed

hybrid transmission, this mild-hybrid model achieves

fuel savings of up to 15 percent.

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TECHNOLOGY

 T wo hearts beating as one is a fanciful but popular descrip-tion of hybrid vehicles in which a traditional internal combustion engine works

alongside a locally emission-free electric motor. But in many full-hybrid vehicles, these two “hearts” still beat very unevenly. Existing full hybrids, for example, can only drive around three kilometers (two miles) on battery power, at speeds never exceed-ing 30 mph (50 km/h). Most of the time, these hybrid vehicles are powered by their internal combustion engines. The corres-pondingly small battery is only recharged while the car is driving – usually by recov-ering kinetic energy during braking ma-neuvers, a process known as “recupera-tion” or “regeneration”.

A plug improves performanceThat’s all due to change in the near future: future hybrid models will rely on more powerful batteries that can also be re-charged from external power sockets – while parked in the garage at home, for ex-ample, or at a public recharging station. ZF is supplementing this plug-in hybrid tech-

nology with a hybrid powertrain that en-ables the cars to operate just like all-electric vehicles: with a range of up to 50 kilometers (30 miles) per battery charge, they can meet most commuters’ daily travel needs using electric power alone. The electric drive is also more than capable of coping with brief sprints at speeds of up to 120 km/h (70 mph) on major roads or highways – the gasoline engine only fi res up at higher speeds. The presence of an internal com-bustion engine also solves the range prob-lem that still affl icts all-electric vehicles. If you suddenly want or need to travel several hundred miles, you can do so in your plug-in hybrid without having to stop at recharg-ing stations along the way.

With the new plug-in hybrid system, ZF has made the next big step in developing the hybrid technology the company has been off ering since 2008. “In principle, the architecture is similar to our previous full-hybrid systems,” explains Dr. Ralf Kubalc-zyk, head of Hybrid Transmission Develop-ment at ZF, and also in charge of integrating the all-in-one system. “But we’ve introduced so many innovations and new develop-ments that we’re now off ering automakers

TWO HEARTSBEATING AS ONE

Using ZF’s new all-in-one plug-in system comprised of automatic transmission, powerful electric motor and smart power electronics,

cars can drive on battery power faster and further than they could with earlier full-hybrid systems. This is also helping

carmakers meet stringent carbon-emission targets.

2 0 1 1Audi Q5 hybrid quattro

The fi rst production car to use the full-hybrid version of ZF’s

8-speed automatic transmission, which enables pure electric

driving without changing the basic transmission concept.

Mitsubishi Outlander P-HEV Presented at the 2012 Paris Motor

Show, this was the fi rst 4WD SUV to

be offered as a plug-in hybrid.

2 0 1 2

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1.201418

Decoupling torsional vibration

Integrated starter element

Important when the system is combined with modern, downsized, turbocharged engines. Ensures the driving experience remains comfortable, with no unpleasant buzzing, and protects the drivetrain from harmful vibrations.

A switching element inside the transmission acts as a starting clutch. This saves space, and also means that starts and gearshifts are as smooth as they would be with a torque converter.

Electrically powered travel – quick, comfortable,and with no “range anxiety”: ZF’s all-in-one plug-in hybrid system makes it all possible.

Range, handling and dynamics

EN_18_ZF_Drive_01_2014 18 02.06.14 11:24

19

Illus

trat

ion:

Sas

cha

Bie

rl

Integral electric pump

Powerful electric motor

Using the power-on-demand principle, the pump reduces fuel consumption while the vehicle is coasting or freewheeling, i.e. while the driver is not braking or accelerating.

The motor – plus increased battery capacity – enables vehicles with plug-in hybrid systems to drive at up to 120 km/h (70 mph) in pure electric mode for distances of up to 50 kilometers (30 miles).

TECHNOLOGY

EN_19_ZF_Drive_01_2014 19 02.06.14 11:24

20 1.2014

a de facto new all-in-one system that will enable them to electrically power a large part of their model range.”

Building blocks of a new systemThe more powerful electric motor plays an important role in this new setup. ZF will soon start to produce 90 kW electric mo-tors for the plug-in hybrid system at the company’s Schweinfurt plant. Alexander Gehring, head of Electric Drives at ZF, has been preparing for this moment with his engineering teams. Increasing the motor’s output to a peak level of 90 kW is not just due to the higher system voltage. “As we’ve continued to develop the electric motor, we’ve also gradually turned up the power,” explains Gehring.

In fact, his team is working on two dif-ferent concepts: fi rst, on a hybrid module that can be incorporated into ZF’s own transmission systems. In this case, the electric motor, separating clutch and tor-sion damper have all been redesigned for the system – and installed in the transmis-sion’s clutch bell housing, where they can be kept cool by the oil mist. The separating clutch, which disengages the electric m otor from the internal combustion e ngine, is actuated by the transmission; when it is open, it produces less drag torque than before . This is very important during longer all-electric driving cycles.

Modules for other transmissionsBut the team is also developing modules for other transmissions, so that auto-makers’ development engineers don’t have to make any further changes to the transmissions they are already using. While these other modules take up more space than the modules integrated into ZF’s own products, they can be used in any transmission system. The modules’ separating clutch and electric motor are designed to be installed in the dry space in the transmission’s bell housing. Thanks to a new actuating mechanism developed by the team from scratch, the clutch is capa-ble of engaging the gasoline or diesel en-gine in a record time of just 150 millisec-onds – so fast, in fact, that the vehicle’s occupants don’t notice it.

Both variants use powerful torsion damp-ers to decouple any torsional vibration in the powertrain. Such vibrations are par-ticularly intense in powertrains driven by modern, downsized, turbocharged engines with fewer cylinders. The resultant hum-ming and buzzing can severely aff ect the comfort of vehicle occupants, as well as impacting on the drivetrain’s service life. The torsion dampers in ZF’s hybrid mod-ules eff ectively attenuate these vibrations until they disappear.

Integrated starter elementA few things have changed in the trans-mission itself, which is based on ZF’s suc-cessful 8-speed automatic transmission, the 8HP. Kubalczyk’s team of engineers have customized it to form an integrated plug-in system. For example, an integrated starter element, a multi-disc brake inside the transmission, does the same job as the torque converter, which has been left out due to lack of space. This integrated starter element can transfer up to 550 Newton meters of starting torque – so has more than enough in reserve to cope with the very high torque generated by the electric motor and gasoline engine when they’re working together. The control electronics only allow the starter element to engage for a few tenths of a second, so that as far as the driver is concerned, starts and gear-shifts are just as comfortable as they would be with a torque converter present. An ex-ternal cooling system makes sure the inte-grated starter element stays cool.

The trend toward electrifi cation is also evident in the hybrid system’s innards, in the form of an electric oil pump which keeps the oil circuit under pressure follow-ing the “power-on-demand” principle, while the vehicle is coasting, for example, i.e. freewheeling on its own without the driver braking or accelerating. The new pump enhances fuel effi ciency, and is also suitable for use in the next generation of conventional automatic transmissions.

Power electronicsThe third key component is the power electronics, which play a vital role in the plug-in hybrid system’s energy manage-

Porsche 918 Spyder Combines a V-8 internal combustion engine with

two electric motors on front and rear axles.

2 0 1 42 0 1 4Volkswagen Jetta HybridFeaturing ZF’s hybrid module.

EN_20_ZF_Drive_01_2014 20 02.06.14 11:24

21

2011

2012

2013

XY ZZ -123XY ZZ -123

XY ZZ -123

TECHNOLOGIE

ment by converting the battery power from DC voltage into the high AC voltage that the electric motor needs to drive the car. The power electronics also level out any voltage fl uctuations that drivers would otherwise experience as unexpected and uncomfortable power fl uctuations when accelerating. A built-in DC/DC inverter provides electric power for the car’s on-board network, including the infotainment system, aircon and lighting.

As Kubalczyk explains, “Much of our expertise lies in integrating system func-tions and energy management.” Here, software is the key. In a hybrid system, the two power sources and many hybrid func-tions associated, for example, with restart-ing the engine, energy recuperation and

engine boosts, all combine to create a huge number of driving modes which the control unit must be able to invoke and manage precisely and fl uidly in mere frac-tions of a second. Compared to building a conventional transmission system such as the 8HP or 9HP, integrating all these func-tions is vastly more complex. And that’s the tricky part of hybrid technology, as ZF is well aware. A large number of the 450 engineers involved in developing the sys-tem in Friedrichshafen, Schweinfurt and Auerbach are working directly on the inte-gration of the all-in-one system.

Modular hybrid toolkitNot only does ZF off er customers an all-in-one, single-sourced system. All the diff er-ent components in ZF’s modular hybrid toolkit are also available separately, mean-ing that carmakers can choose to order just the electric motor, or the hybrid mod-ule consisting of electric motor, separating clutch and torsion damper. Other custom-ers are also showing interest in ZF’s hybrid module and transmission.

“With our modular hybrid toolkit, which now includes our plug-in system, we can respond to market needs very fl ex-ibly,” continues Kubalczyk. The demand is correspondingly high – not least because of how the system performed in the ECE test cycle. Required by law, this driving cycle is designed to measure the fuel con-sumption and CO2 emissions of hybrid ve-hicles. For manufacturers, the really im-portant thing is: do the vehicle emissions fall below the CO2 emission limit of 130 g/km that will come into force in the EU in 2015 – and will be further reduced to an even more stringent 95 g/km in 2021? Plug-in hybrid vehicles perform the fi rst part of the ECE test cycle in all-electric mode. “The test shows that fuel savings compared to conventional automatic trans-mission systems can be as much as 70 per-cent,” smiles Kubalczyk. In short, plug-in hybrids are making an important contribu-tion toward enabling vehicle manufactur-ers to comply with the rigorous new CO2 emission standards. ■

ZF’s Schweinfurt plant started producing DynaStart modules capable of producing12 kW back in 2008.

Pho

to: D

omin

ik G

igle

r

Our app for iPad and iPhone has

more on this topic:www.zf.com/drive-app

26,348 hybrid vehicles were registered in Germany in 2013, of which 1,385 were plug-in hybrids.

48 ,951 plug-in hybrids were sold in the U.S. in 2013.

2012: 38,585

2011: 7,671

TECHNOLOGY

EN_21_ZF_Drive_01_2014 21 02.06.14 11:24

22 1.2014

Modern agricultural machinery takes the strain out of working in the fi elds.

EN_22_ZF_Drive_01_2014 22 02.06.14 11:26

23

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY

A growing world population, the impact of climate change and dwindling resources are among the major challenges now facing the agricultural industry. Along with the development

of new crop types, state-of-the-art agricultural machinery off ers the best hope for the future.

THE HI-TECH WAY TO FARM

By Birk Grüling

EN_23_ZF_Drive_01_2014 23 02.06.14 11:26

24 1.2014

 T he big tractor stops on the edge of the plowed fi eld while the farmer types fi nal instruc-tions into the onboard com-puter. It’s a perfect day for

planting the spring wheat – as the farm’s operating system had already calculated, based on meteorological data, soil samples and grain characteristics. At last, with a couple of clicks, the farmer enters the speed setting and launches the sowing pro-gram. For the next few hours, he’ll leave most of the work to the tractor’s onboard systems. U sing laser scanners and GPS, the tractor will fi nd its way around the fi eld almost unassisted. The farmer can concentrate entirely on the sowing pro-cess, without having to worry about clutch or gearshifts. What once sounded futuris-tic is rapidly becoming routine.

“Modern farmers sit in the cockpits of their farm machines and monitor the prog-ress of farming operations from their on-board computers; they hardly even have to steer,” explains Professor S tefan Böttinger from the Institute of Agricultural Engi-neering at the University of Hohenheim. Liberated from monotonous work in shifts lasting 12-14 hours, farmers can now con-centrate on optimizing the workfl ow. Just like modern cars, the onboard computers in farmers’ tractors display important in-formation on speed, fuel consumption and the status of the sowing operation. On-board computers can also control agricul-tural implements attached to the tractor,

ZF technology in agricultureZF engineers built the company’s fi rst t ractor transmission back in 1937; today, almost all of the major manufacturers of agricultural machinery rely on ZF’s con-tinuously variable transmissions (CVTs). Over the decades, these systems have made huge strides in terms of sophistica-tion and performance. Nowadays, farm machines producing up to 650 horsepower run smoothly on ZF’s heavy-duty CVTs. Just like driver-assist systems, modern powertrain technologies take the strain out of farmers’ daily work – and because they maintain a perfect balance between engine speed and gearing, they also reduce fuel consumption. In times of scarce resources and high oil prices, that’s an important cost consideration for farmers.

Robots will take care of farming in the future. The Prospero Robot Farmer (above), designed by Dorhout R&D LLC, is capable of high-precision sowing, while its “colleague” BoniRob (below), designed by Amazone, helps farmers with pest control.

Technology meets rural idyll: a farmer controls his smart farm using iPads and onboard computers.

EN_24_ZF_Drive_01_2014 24 02.06.14 11:26

25

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY

such as plows or planters. Previously, each piece of machinery had its own set of con-trols. After a long day in the fi elds, tractors often resembled nothing so much as the inside of a very messy workshop.

Linking together applicationsNowadays, many modern agricultural im-plements are partially autonomous. Take baling, for example. Not so long ago, farm-ers would have to drive over the meadow, stop each time the baler fi nished pressing or rolling a bale, and unload it by hand be-fore driving on again. Modern balers, on the other hand, can calculate the speed of both tractor and baler, bring them both to a halt at the right moment and dump the bales on their own – the whole process is automated. “The growing use of hi-tech farm m achinery is enabling farmers to work more effi ciently and more economi-cally,” says Hermann Beck, head of ZF’s Off -Highway Systems business unit.

One important prerequisite for agricul-tural innovation is the seamless intercon-nection of the individual applications to form a single smart, streamlined, all-in-one system. Modern agricultural machines have two diff erent interfaces for enabling the individual subsystems to talk to each other. The fi rst interface, known as the CAN bus system, is primarily used to con-trol internal systems such as e ngine and transmission: the system automatically ap-plies optimum engine-speed s ettings and appropriate gearing. In normal, day-to-day operation, the driver very rarely interacts with this system.

Controlling planters directlyBy contrast, the second system (ISOBUS)works closely with farmers, enabling them to control, for example, plowing or sowing implements directly from their on-board computers. But smart communica-tion between systems extends far beyond the farm vehicle itself. Currently, farmers have high hopes for development work in progress on so-called “slave systems”, whereby the main farm machine acts as the lead vehicle, interacting with a fl ock of smaller, (semi-)autonomous, unmanned vehicles. “Imagine a combine harvester, for example, using laser sensors to control a self-propelled trailer driving along

b ehind it. The harvester steadily loads up the trailer and then, once it’s full, auto-matically calls for a replacement. Mean-while the fi rst trailer makes its way back to base,” enthuses Beck.

Another major theme preoccupying agri cultural visionaries is “precision farm-ing”. Typically, this vision of the future in-volves agricultural machines that not only know precisely where they are in the fi eld, but also how much seed and fertilizer they need to distribute in each part of the fi eld. Gauging exactly how much fertilizer to ap-ply has always been one of farming’s most problematic challenges. Fertilizer in the soil is mobile: it’s diffi cult to tell whether crops are receiving enough nitrates, or whether the nitrogen is making its way straight into the groundwater. Now r esearchers at the University of Bremen have come up with a possible solution. The soil in the fi eld is analyzed using a small chemical laboratory. This involves dissolv-ing a teaspoon of soil in water and fi ltering it. In just a few minutes, electrical analysis of the chemical constituents tells the farmer the ideal amount of fertilizer to a pply. In the medium term, the test will be automated. “Turning ideas like this into re-ality makes sense, in terms of both cost e ffi ciency and environmental protection,” says agricultural engineer Böttinger. Fertil-izer represents a major expense for farm-ers, while high concentrations can seri-ously damage the environment – especially groundwater. But cutting costs, reducing workloads and protecting the environment are by no means the only reasons why the use of hi-tech systems in farms is explod-ing. “Already, farmers in Germany and France are harvesting four or fi ve times as much wheat from their fi elds as farmers in the U.S. or Russia,” says Böttinger. “Using modern systems, we’re further increasing productivity and crop yields,” he adds. This high effi ciency is immensely impor-tant in international competition – not least because farmers in Russia and the U.S. have on average three to four times as much acreage available to them. ■

Author Birk Grüling specializes in science and

sustainability issues. He writes for Die Zeit, the

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Tagesspiegel,

as well as other publications.

Our app for iPad and iPhone has

more on this topic:www.zf.com/drive-app

By

2050 the world’s

population will have grown to

nine billion,

food production will need to increase by 70 percent

and demand for rice, corn, wheat and soybeans will

rise by up to 100 percent.

By

2030around 40 percent of the corn acreage

in sub-Saharan Africa will have

disappeared due to drought.

15 million square

kilometers (5.8 million sq mi)

of the Earth’s surface are currently used for agricultural purposes – almost equivalent to the

area of South America.

0.75 square

kilometers(0.3 sq mi) of soil are sealed

in Germany every day.

EN_25_ZF_Drive_01_2014 25 02.06.14 11:26

26 1.2014

A ZF study into the future of long-distance truck d riving is investigating drivers’ living and working

conditions. A new edition is currently being prepared.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

By Andreas Techel

EN_26_ZF_Drive_01_2014 26 02.06.14 11:32

27

MOBILITY

W hat’s happening to the working conditions of long-distance truck drivers? Are new work-

ing models emerging that will make the profession more attractive to a wider audi-ence? What about remuneration trends in the industry? This study, the successor to a previous ZF study on the future of truck driving, explores these and other ques-tions, and will appear in time for the IAA Commercial Vehicles trade fair in the fall.

In 2012, a publication entitled “ZF F uture Study on Truck Drivers” appeared. It was a fi rst attempt to provide research-based insights into the lives of truck driv-ers and their importance to the logistics industry. Professor Dr. Dirk Lohre at Heil-bronn University was in charge of the study, which was commissioned by ZF and German trade magazine FERNFAHRER.

Dramatic shortage of driversThe study drew attention to a dramatic shortage of drivers that is likely to become even more acute over the next few years. Out of some 660,000 professional truck drivers in Germany, at least 40 percent are expected to retire by 2020. At the same time, only a fraction of the skilled replace-ments required are being trained or re-trained to enter the industry. These are alarming fi gures in view of the steadily growing demand for road freight transpor-tation. The 2012 study was widely covered by the media, because problems in the l ogistics sector have a signifi cant economic impact on Germany as a net exporter.

The study’s successor reviews drivers’ working conditions, but also investigates market conditions in the industry. On the basis of current transport market trends, the research team is designing if-then s cenarios in an attempt to predict how con-ditions in the industry could develop by 2030. By providing such projections, the study aims to become a kind of simulator for decision-makers such as policymakers and business owners, enabling them to analyze the possible outcomes of their a ctions – when dealing with cabotage reg-ulations within the EU, for example. Cabo-tage refers to the transportation of freight by foreign companies. German road freight companies use such arrangements in neighboring countries, and vice versa.

Tips for decision-makersWage gaps within the EU mean that certain limits have been placed on cabotage ar-rangements. Reactions to this policy diff er widely: many German carriers fear that prices will deteriorate further and want even more protection, whereas many logis-tics companies would like to see all such regulatory constraints removed completely. Given such confl icts of interest, the new study should be a valuable source of indica-tors for stakeholders and policymakers. ■

Like its predecessor, the ZF Study on

Truck Drivers 2.0 is also focusing on

the professional and social status of long-distance

truck drivers.

Author Andreas Techel is Chief Editor of the German

trade journal FERNFAHRER published by ETM Verlag

in Stuttgart. The magazine has been reporting on

truck technology and social and political issues in the

transportation and logistics industry for 30 years.

ZF Study on Truck Drivers 2.0

In order to prepare this sequel, ZF and trade journal FERNFAHRER invited a third partner on board: DEKRA. The professional organi-zation is the largest training provider in the transport industry. For the study, the team conducted expert interviews with freight carriers and logistics fi rms, as well as repre-sentatives of associations, trade and special-ist media and political organizations. They also carried out a survey of truck drivers. By the summer, regular meetings will be taking place with leading fi gures in the industry, as part of the ZF-Speditionslounge series. The study will be presented to policy makers in Berlin and Brussels, and also at the IAA Commercial Vehicles trade fair (9/25–10/2). The 2/2014 issue of drive will contain an in-depth report on the study.

9 To fi nd out more about how the study is being produced, visit www.zf-zukunftsstudie.de

EN_27_ZF_Drive_01_2014 27 02.06.14 11:32

1.201428

BRAZIL

ALWAYS ON THE GO

As the Soccer World Cup approaches, all eyes are turned to Brazil. ZF is e specially well-positioned in the country. Now drive delivers a report from an

ambitious nation that has rapidly evolved from Third World status into a major economic power – and the world’s fourth largest automotive market.

Report by Jörg HeuerPhotos by Dominik Gigler

With 11 million residents, the city of São Paulo is the country’s fi nancial and commercial hub.

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GLOBALIZATION

EN_29_ZF_Drive_01_2014 29 02.06.14 11:33

30 1.2014

1

2

43

SÃO PAULOSorocaba

Betim

São Bernardo do Campo

Araraquara

RIO DE JANEIRO

Host nation Brazil

2014 Brazil hosts the World

Cup for the second time (the fi rst was in

1950).

Brazil has won the most

world titles

5 (1958, 1962, 1970,

1994, 2002).

The country is investing the equivalent of

27 billion dollars

in the Soccer World Cup

and

18 billion dollars

in the 2016 Olympic Games.

EN_30_ZF_Drive_01_2014 30 04.06.14 18:30

31

GLOBALIZATION

 T he view from the helicopter down onto São Paulo is quite simply breathtaking. The city, with its countless skyscrapers divided by deep canyons,

green parks and sports facilities, residen-tial areas and commercial districts – but also just a few too many favelas, or slums – extends to every horizon in an unending sprawl: city, city everywhere. Although the traffi c only fl ows sluggishly through the busy streets, the whole cityscape seems to be in perpetual motion.

Despite our lofty height, we can even make out one of the largest city buses in the world. 27 meters (90 feet) long, the Volvo bus has four axles, two articulations and an offi cial capacity of 200 passengers. In reality, it carries a lot more. 170 of these low-fl oor monsters wind their way through the streets of São Paulo; ZF supplies the giant vehicle’s transmission and certain chassis components. However, the long-planned BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) system, which would allow city buses to travel un-impeded through all of São Paulo, has not yet been extended across all parts of the city. While some bus lanes have been built, they still haven’t been properly networked.

A few minutes later we see Guarulhos International Airport, where a third termi-nal is under construction. There’s no way it will be fully operational by the time the World Cup starts. The Arena Corin thians in the city’s Itaquera district is also in the fi nal stages of construction; the 65,000-seat stadium will host the World Cup open-ing game between Brazil and Croatia on June 12, as well as three other group matches, one second-round game and a semi-fi nal. 2,250 workers are toiling around the clock to make sure it’s ready in

time for the World Cup kick-off . The cost of building the second largest, third most expensive World Cup stadium will be equivalent to around 300 million euros (roughly 410 million U.S. dollars).

And yet the maglev suspension railway across the city, along with another subway line – both originally designed for the great soccer spectacle – will remain no more than building sites during the World Cup and beyond. No other Brazilian city planned to invest so much in its World Cup transport infrastructure as São Paulo: 2.86 billion Brazilian reals, equivalent to 900 million euros or 1.25 billion dollars. By comparison, Rio de Janeiro is “only” i nvesting 1.6 billion reals in its transport network. Brazil is spending a total of around 60 billion reals on the Soccer World Cup, plus another 40 billion on preparations for the 2016 Olympic Games.

City in the throes of rebuildingAs the helicopter fl ies over the metropolis, our drive photographer’s camera never stops clicking. The sun fl ashes from mod-ern glass facades. More skyscrapers than anywhere else in the world – with the ex-ception of New York – feature rooftop heli-pads. And everywhere builders’ cranes tower high above the endless sea of houses. No doubt about it: Brazil’s capital city, not far from the country’s Atlantic coastline, is still in the throes of a major overhaul just weeks before the Soccer World Cup.

Over the last ten years, Brazil has suc-ceeded in reducing poverty across large segments of the country’s 200-million pop-ulation: 50 million people have been lifted out of poverty and extreme poverty to join the middle classes. The Brazilian popula-tion is classifi ed alphabetically, from A

1 Sophisticated São Paulo, with skyscrapers and glass facades2 New landmark: the 138-meter-tall Ponte Estaiada Octávio Frias de Oliveira suspension bridge3 Street artists pay homage to national idol Ronaldo.4 Still under construction: the Soccer World Cup opening game will kick off in São Paulo’s Arena Corinthians.

Pho

to: Z

F

EN_31_ZF_Drive_01_2014 31 02.06.14 11:33

32

3

1

2

1.2014

More cars are now produced and sold in Brazil than almost anywhere else in the world. ZF recognized the importance of this industrial nation – and especially the state of São Paulo – some 56 years ago, and this is where the company set up its fi rst production facility outside Germany.

Nowadays, all four of the company’s main divisions operate here: Car Power-train Technology, Car Chassis Technology, Commercial Vehicle Technology and In-dustrial Technology. Not to mention the ZF Services business unit and ZF Steering Systems, the company’s joint venture with Bosch. In view of the economic signifi -cance of the São Paulo region not just for Brazil, but for South America as a whole, it’s easy to understand why ZF’s produc-tion facilities are located in nearby Soro-caba, São Bernardo do Campo and Ara-raquara, with another plant a little further away in Betim. ZF’s 4,300 or so employees in Brazil produce transmissions for com-mercial vehicles, axles and transmissions for agricultural machinery, marine trans-missions, and clutches, chassis compo-nents and steering systems for cars, trucks and commercial vehicles. Playing in this part of Brazil is like a home game for ZF.

Special training programsZF is a popular employer in the country – and not just for young engineers. The com-pany organizes special in-house training programs to develop the skilled workers it needs in production and assembly. One of them is Genivaldo de Oliveira Couto, who

(wealthy, with a monthly family income of more than 7,475 reals) down to E (poor, with a family income of less than 1,085 re-als). While 27.4 percent of the population was still classifi ed as E in 2003, the fi gure has now shrunk to around ten percent.

Brazil’s business hubWith 11 million residents – or 22 million in the city’s greater metropolitan area – São Paulo is the capital of the state of São Paulo, Brazil’s fi nancial and industrial cen-ter. The state accounts for 30 percent of Brazil’s manufacturing output and acts as the economic hub for the whole of Latin and South America. The city itself is the birthplace of such Formula One legends as Emerson Fittipaldi, Ayrton Senna and F elipe Massa. It’s the sixth largest metro-politan area in the world. No international company interested in building a presence in South America can aff ord to overlook São Paulo – city or state.

“This is Germany’s largest industrial city,” is how Germany’s Consul General in São Paulo, Friedrich Däuble, describes the booming metropolis – despite the 10,000 air miles that separate it from Germany. “Over one thousand German companies now have a presence in the São Paulo met-ropolitan area, including all the best known and most respected. A quarter of a million people now work for subsidiaries of German businesses,” says the diplomat, speaking to us in his offi cial residence. “It’s diffi cult to overstate the signifi cance of São Paulo for the German economy.”

Economy

With

3.76 million

vehicles sold in 2013, Brazil is the fourth largest

automotive market after China, the U.S. and Japan.

Economic growth

2010: record level

7.5 % 2012: nearly 1%

2013: 2.5%

GDPAt around

2260 bn dollarsBrazil’s Gross

Domestic Product (2012) makes it

the seventh largest economy

in the world.

Pho

to: G

erm

an C

onsu

late

Gen

eral

in S

ão P

aulo

EN_32_ZF_Drive_01_2014 32 02.06.14 11:33

33

4

GLOBALIZATION

1 Friedrich Däuble, Germany’s Consul General in São Paulo.2 São Paulo’s Bus Rapid Transit system is being expanded.3 The São Paulo metropolitan area sprawls to the horizon.4 Genivaldo de Oliveira Couto works in ZF’s paint shop and plays as goalkeeper on the ZF works team.

“It’s diffi cult to overstate the signifi cance of São Paulo for

the German economy.”FRIEDRICH DÄUBLE,

GERMANY’S CONSUL GENERAL IN SÃO PAULO

EN_33_ZF_Drive_01_2014 33 02.06.14 11:33

34 1.2014

2

1

1.2014

has been working in one of ZF’s two plants in Sorocaba for 14 years; he lives with his wife and two daughters in this city of 600,000 people. ZF’s Sorocaba site, less than 90 kilometers (60 miles) away from São Paulo, has the largest workforce – it’s the beating heart of ZF do Brasil.

Genivaldo de Oliveira Couto has worked in various production areas. At the moment he’s working in the paint shop. But most of his colleagues – who are all just as football-crazy as he is – simply call him “Black Ceni”, after Rogério Ceni, the goalkeeper and captain of his favorite s occer team: São Paulo FC. The multiple Brazilian champions and Club World Cup winners have also brought forth such na-tional heroes as Kaká, Raí and Cafu.

While Genivaldo enjoys watching s occer games, he plays soccer, too. Did we say, “plays”? He lives and breathes soccer – and doesn’t mind showing us a few tricks, fi rst bouncing the leather ball on his forehead, then juggling it alternately be-tween his feet and upper thighs. When he was a kid, he and his buddies played street soccer all day long. They didn’t have a soc-cer pitch or a leather ball – a rubber ball did just as well. Or even an empty tin can, which they would kick around with their bare feet in front of goals marked out by a couple of paving blocks.

There can only be one World ChampionOf course things are a little diff erent now. Genivaldo plays as goalkeeper for the ZF works team in Sorocaba, and ZF supplies the balls, soccer shoes, jerseys and a well-maintained soccer pitch. The ZF keeper trains three times a week. On Saturdays, the team usually plays a match against a works team from another company. And whenever he can, he and his team-mates and colleagues go to watch his favorite club’s home games. Sadly, he wasn’t able to get hold of tickets for any of the six World Cup matches scheduled in São Paulo. Although 57 percent of the 2.5 mil-lion tickets went to Brazilians, Genivaldo wasn’t one of the lucky ones. Most of the 43 percent of World Cup tickets left over went to American, Colombian, German, Argentinian and British fans.

According to a survey organized by B razilian newspaper Folha de S. Paulo, 82 percent of Brazilians are intending to watch the games on TV – even though there were violent protests against the de-cision to host the event, as well as against corruption and the sheer expense of the preparations. A recent survey suggests that 24 percent of Brazilians are still opposed to hosting the World Cup in their country.

Genivaldo, on the other hand, can’t wait. He’s hoping ZF will allow factory

1 + 2 Clauderice Alves works in transmission assembly in Plant 1 on ZF’s main Sorocaba site. 3 In Sorocaba, tractor axles are painted in each customer’s preferred color after assembly.

With an area of

3,287,612square miles

Brazil is only slightly smaller than

the U.S.

EN_34_ZF_Drive_01_2014 34 02.06.14 11:33

353

GLOBALIZATION

“German discipline and

Brazilian creativity –

that’s what will take us

forward.”WILSON BRICIO, PRESIDENT OF

ZF SOUTH AMERICA

How are things looking for ZF in Brazil at the present time? ZF sales have doubled over the last nine years, growing on average 50 percent faster than the market as a whole. We’re the leaders in most commercial-vehicle segments, and in many car segments.

What are your long-term goals and vision for ZF in Brazil? We’re intending to maintain our market position and increase our market share by systematically developing the skills of our regional workforce. This will put us in a good position to be able to meet local demand for new technologies.

In your view, are there even greater o pportunities for growth? Yes, in automation for commercial vehi-cles, but also in greater fuel effi ciency and improved safety for cars; those are areas where we see defi nite potential.Applications tailored specifi cally to local needs are especially important. We also see major growth opportunities in wind power and marine technologies.

Has the World Cup signifi cantly boosted ZF’s business in Brazil? To some extent, but not as much as we were expecting. The anticipated large-scale infrastructural development didn’t really happen. But the bus market grew by 14 percent between 2012 and 2013, so there’s a big opportunity for us there.

Even though the Football World Cup hasn’t boosted the economy

as much as expected, Wilson Bricio, President of ZF South America, is very satisfi ed with the way

business has developed.

“Market leaders in so many segments”

INTERVIEW

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36 1.2014

1 2

3

workers to down tools whenever the Bra-zilian national team’s games are shown on TV. He’s counting the days until the open-ing game. His tip for the World Cup fi nal? The goalkeeper’s gentle smile is belied by his fl ashing eyes: “Brazil versus Germany, ending in a 2:1 victory. There can only be one World Champion: Brazil!”

Automotive market of the future“We are actually considering whether to shut down during Brazil’s matches,” ad-mits Wilson Bricio (see interview on page 35), who has been President of ZF South America since 2005. “I’m sure our custom-ers will be doing exactly the same thing.”

In business terms, the head of ZF’s South American operations had expected the World Cup to provide more of a boost for ZF do Brasil, but he’s still happy with the way business has developed in recent years. “We’ve doubled our sales over the past nine years. We’re the market leaders in certain passenger car segments, and in almost every segment of the commercial vehicle market. And we’ve only just started our assault on Brazil’s booming market for construction machinery.”

So what are the most important items on his agenda at the present time? “We want to become even more competitive, and we want to see even more interaction between Brazil and Germany,” he replies.

1 Roberto Cortes, head of MAN Latin America. 2 Bushings for a tractor axle awaiting installation. 3 Anita Luiza Muller assembles clutches at the ZF plant in São Bernardo do Campo. 4 A view of ZF Plant 2 in Sorocaba.

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4

GLOBALIZATION

Then he smiles and adds: “German inno-vation and discipline, combined with Bra-zilian adaptability and creativity – that’s what will take us forward into the future.”The fact that truck sales in Brazil have risen by 160 percent since 2002 has also strengthened ZF’s South American arm, which now works with all the largest and most reputable commercial vehicle manu-facturers. “For MAN, Brazil is the most im-portant market in the world,” says Roberto Cortes, CEO and President of MAN Latin America, the largest manufacturer of trucks and second largest manufacturer of buses in South America. He goes on to ex-plain that 85 percent of the company’s

“Brazil is a resource-rich,

rapidly emerging nation that is very important to ZF.”

ROLF LUTZ, MEMBER OF THE BOARD RESPONSIBLE

FOR THE SOUTH AMERICA REGION

Our app for iPad and iPhone has

more on this topic:www.zf.com/drive-app

With 3.76 million vehicles sold in 2013, the country’s automotive market is ranked fourth in the world behind China, the U.S. and Japan, according to Brazil’s National Association of Automotive Manufacturers, ANFAVEA. In 2010, the country’s eco-nomic growth reached a record high of 7.5 percent, levelling off at 2.5 percent in 2013 (with a rate of infl ation of around six per-cent). An impressive achievement in which ZF, as both employer and business powerhouse, has played a part.

Early days for football euphoriaFrom Sorocaba, we travel back toward São Paulo. The World Cup kicks off in a few weeks, but there’s little along the freeway to suggest incipient soccer euphoria – no roadside advertising hoardings displaying portraits of soccer stars, no Brazilian fl ags tied to the antennas or rear-view mirrors of passing cars and trucks; no hint of the great event. Even the media are low-key.

“That’ll change in a fl ash as soon as the fi rst teams travel to Brazil and move into their accommodation,” proclaims snack bar owner Toni Dedè confi dently. “Then there’ll be nothing but football coverage and round-the-clock celebrations.”

Inspecting diaphragm springsDuring a brief stopover at ZF’s plant in São Bernardo do Campo, which manufactures clutches, we ask Anita Luiza Muller if she’s interested in the World Cup? With a loud laugh, she nods vigorously. “It’s a point of honor! Even Brazilian women are born football fans!”

Anita Luiza Muller has been working here for 30 years. At the moment, she’s checking that diaphragm springs for car clutches are 100 percent compliant with specifi cations. She inspects them with a trained eye, occasionally glancing at digi-tal readouts on her computer screen. “A fter so many years, my colleagues tease me and say I’m ZF company property,” smiles the high-precision worker with her tightly scraped-back hair. “But it doesn’t annoy me. On the contrary: it makes me very proud.” She’s also proud when she spends weekends with her family and friends on the beach, or in one of Brazil’s beloved shopping malls. She can’t resist pointing out to them: “Just look, many of these beautiful cars wouldn’t run at all if I hadn’t had a hand in building them.” ■ Author Jörg Heuer used to work as a reporter for

legendary Tempo magazine. Now he freelances for

print magazines like National Geographic, Stern and

ZEITmagazin, for daily papers such as Die Welt and

The Guardian, and as a TV journalist.

sales are generated in Brazil, the remain-ing 15 percent in the other Latin American countries. “Roughly every third truck driv-ing on Brazil’s roads today is one of our products. And when I look into the future, there’s so much more we can do in Brazil.” After all, around 300,000 of these trucks are between 20 and 25 years old.

Despite all the favorable forecasts, there are still some contrary winds to cope with in this nation of equatorial sunshine. “B razil is a resource-rich, emerging econ-omy, where ZF is currently having to deal with strong wage growth and rising com-modity prices,” is how Rolf Lutz, ZF Board member responsible for South America, recently summarized the situation.

Fourth largest automotive marketDespite all the ups and downs and the ever-present challenges, the decision to es-tablish a presence in Brazil at an early stage has paid off for ZF. Brazil’s economy, already seventh largest in the world, is still building up steam: analysts at the Interna-tional Monetary Fund predict that by 2015, Brazil will overtake France in fi fth and Great Britain in sixth place.

1958 is when ZF set

up the company’s fi rst international

production plant in São Caetano do

Sul in the state ofSão Paulo.

4300 employees

currently work at the four ZF sites in Brazil.

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1.201438

ON TOUR

Text: Freddy BoomPhotos: Eva Häberle

Germany’s bus market is booming! Since early 2013, more and more passengers have been using the services off ered

by a steadily growing number of operators and are choosing to travel by intercity bus. drive decided to join them.

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MOBILITY

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 T he road is positively blinding – it rained during the night, and the wet asphalt is mirror-bright in the morning sun. Driver Ali Aydin straightens his sunglasses. His bus is cruising quietly through the North

German lowlands; there’s very l ittle traffi c. A few commuters, a couple of tractors. The journey takes us past villages with names like Sülze (“Aspic” in Eng-lish), Didderse and Wipshausen. Homemade signs along the roadside advertise “Lovely potatoes – fresh from the farm!”, “Firewood, going cheap” and “Tan-ya’s tasty takeouts”. In the brown fi elds, crows are pecking at the stubble; moorland sheep are nibbling the fresh spring grass. Sightseeing in the peaceful heart of Lower Saxony – aboard a bus that’s making the railway companies very nervous.

Intercity bus travel is boomingThis Friday’s outing is taking us from Hamburg to Munich. Around 30 passengers assembled at eight o’clock this morning in Hamburg’s central bus station – offi cial name: “Bus Port”, because the city is a major port – waiting to board the bright green bus (a MAN Lion’s Coach) operated by travel company MeinFern-bus. Some of them are traveling as far as the foothills of the Alps, a trip lasting more than 12.5 hours. O thers are disembarking in Braunschweig, Magde-burg or Leipzig. They’re all united by one thing: they’re trendsetters, because they’re traveling by bus rather than by train, budget airline or car. By intercity bus, to be precise. Since the deregulation of Ger-many’s long-haul bus market on January 1, 2013, b usiness has been booming. By the end of the year, around 40 long-distance bus operators were off ering more than 5,000 scheduled trips within Germany each week, a ccording to a survey carried out by the IGES I nstitute in Berlin on behalf of the Federal A ssociation of German Bus & Coach Operators; just 12 months ago, there were fewer than 1,500. Since then, independent web portal FahrtenFuchs (English: TravelFox) reckons the fi gure has risen to 8,000 a week. Germany’s long-distance rail operator Deutsche Bahn (DB) has some serious competition at last.

From MeinFernbus.de in particular. The Berlin-based company is currently German market leader, with a 39.7 percent share of the scheduled road miles. Like its competitors, MeinFernbus is attracting young people and senior citizens in particular – a clientele that’s price-sensitive and doesn’t mind spending more time on the road. After all, while long-haul bus jour-neys are usually much cheaper than comparable trips by train, they do last longer. It takes bus passengers

12.5 hours on average to travel from Hamburg to M unich; by train it takes around six hours.

Direct connections to smaller destinationsBut intercity buses do excel at one thing: they can drive directly to smaller destinations that are only a ccessible by train if you’re willing to make multiple changes. As a bonus, passengers enjoy free Internet access by Wi-Fi, plus snacks for one euro (1.35 dollars) and soft drinks for 1.50 euros (two dollars).

More and more operators are pushing into the mar-ket; fi rms like DeinBus.de, Flixbus and ADAC Postbus. It’s not surprising – estimated annual industry sales are as high as 600 million euros. Even Deutsche Bahn is muscling in. Its subsidiary Berlin Linien Bus GmbH has just opened ten new bus routes: Hamburg-Munich and Hamburg-Cologne, for example.

For Simon Illner, who boarded the bus in Ham-burg, price and comfort were key factors in deciding to make his fi rst trip by intercity bus. The student teacher from Magdeburg has been visiting his sister and nephew in the harbor city; now he’s traveling back to his home town. “If I’d made the journey by car, I’d have needed at least three hours,” he reckons, “and I’d have been exhausted by the time I arrived.” Then he excuses himself, because he wants to say goodbye to his nephew, who was still asleep when he left the house this morning. Simon Illner makes the call, speaking in the typical voice of an adult talking to a three-year-old. As he hangs up, he notices some of his fellow-passengers have been eavesdropping; they all laugh together. “That’s something else I like about buses,” he murmurs with a grin. “You soon fi nd your-self chatting to people.” Then he opens his laptop and starts doing some Internet research for a term paper.

Pioneers from Friedrichshafen

One of the fi rst players in Germany’s long-distance bus market was DeinBus.de. The company was founded by three students from ZF-sponsored Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen. DeinBus.de started as a “bus-pool s ervice” – meaning the founders could circumvent the legislation in force at the time, which more or less prohibited long-distance bus services in Germany from competing with the (partially state-owned) train operators. As it was, Deutsche Bahn attempted to sue DeinBus.de in 2010, but lost because the company didn’t offer any fi xed bus routes at that time. Today, the bus operator runs s ervices between 30 cities in Germany.

40bus fi rms

are fi ghting for German customers

in this new travel segment.

Market leader among German

intercity bus operators is

currently Berlin-based fi rm

MeinFernbus, with

39.7 percent

of the scheduled road miles.

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MOBILITY

Saying goodbye in Hamburg... the southbound bus makes an early start. Most of the passen-gers aboard the bright-green vehicle are students, trainees and seniors, who don’t mind traveling through the countryside as long as they have reasonably priced coffee and free Wi-Fi.

“A large proportion of our customers are car drivers, who choose to travel by bus as a stress-free alternative.”

TORBEN GREVE, MANAGING DIRECTOR OF MEINFERNBUS

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“It’s just like sitting in a helicopter!”One row in front of him, immediately behind bus driver Ali Aydin, sits Reinhardt Kohlrusch. The 64-year-old pensioner from Flensburg has made him-self very comfortable. A friend drove him to Hamburg, and now he’s taking the bus all the way to the central bus station in M unich. He always tries to sit in the front row, because “when you’ve got an unobstructed view through that huge windshield, it’s just like sitting in a helicopter!” While he’s fi nishing his second break-fast – a salami roll and an apple – Kohlrusch tells us all about his seven children and four grandchildren. Nearly all of them live on Lake Starnberg, which is where he’s traveling now. He’s not a native of the Flensburg area, either, as we’d already guessed from his distinctive Bavarian accent. Kohlrusch approves of

bus travel: “There’s no stress this way”. It might be a “little quicker” by car, or indeed by train, but the leg-room in the bus is unbeatable. His son booked the ticket for him on the Web. Now he can sit and day-dream in peace, taking an occasional nap and watch-ing the scenery pass by. Then there’s the price: just 28 euros (38 dollars) for a one-way ticket. For pensioners on a modest income, that makes a very strong case for traveling by bus, laughs Reinhardt Kohlrusch.

Student Illner and pensioner Kohlrusch are typical intercity bus customers. “A large proportion of our passengers are traveling as tourists, or visiting friends and family, or going to business appointments,” says Torben Greve, Managing Director of MeinFernbus. As it happens, the new long-distance travel operators are not primarily targeting rail customers. It’s “car drivers

Up, up and away: international bus travel

In Germany, regular intercity bus services are a new trend. In many other countries, however, they’ve been around for a long time – often because of inadequate or incomplete rail networks. In the U.S. and Canada, buses run by market leader Greyhound alone carry 18 million passengers a year to a total of 3,800 destinations – the journey from New York to Los Angeles, for example, takes three days. Founded in 1914, the Greyhound logo is one of most iconic brand symbols in the world. In Mexico, many places can only be reached by bus, and the country’s bus operators offer three different classes of service: Deluxe express buses offering every possible passenger comfort; fi rst-class luxury buses with video, aircon and onboard toilet – and last and very much least, second-class buses, which are usually crowded and often act as heavy-duty taxis for agricultural produce, farm animals and pets. In Europe, intercity buses have been a regular feature of road t raffi c in countries like Sweden, the U.K. and Switzerland for decades. In the U.K., the railway monopoly was broken up back in the 1980s, while in Switzerland the distance covered by the long-distance bus network is twice as long as the country’s (also extensive) rail network.

Student Simon Illner (top left) is using the onboard Wi-Fi; bus driver Ali Aydin (top right) helps passen-gers with their luggage, and pen-sioner Reinhardt Kohlrusch (right) is visiting his grandchildren in Bavaria.

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MOBILITY

in particular” who view intercity buses as a “comfort-able and stress-free alternative to making the journey in their own cars,” as Greve puts it.

And it’s true: last year, the number of rail passen-gers didn’t decline, despite the new competition on the nation’s roads. Transport expert Christoph Gipp, one of the consultants working for the IGES Institute in Berlin, believes that many intercity bus passengers are “new travelers”, including many senior citizens who found the whole process of changing trains too strenuous and so didn’t travel at all. Now, thanks to the rapidly growing bus network with its direct con-nections, this target audience is discovering a new kind of freedom. “Another passenger segment comes from carpooling or car-sharing environments, or pre-viously traveled by car or train,” adds Gipp.

Applause for the driverThe green bus has left the A7 freeway near Soltau-Süd and is now rolling down country roads toward Celle, the fi rst stop of the morning. The highway runs ruler-straight down an avenue of alders and beeches. The morning mist rises from the fi elds, windmills turn s edately on the horizon, and here and there you can see Lower Saxony’s “green hills”: biogas plants set up by state-of-the-art farming operations. “I love it,” says Ali Aydin, our bus driver. He’s taken off his sunglasses. “This early-morning calm – it’s beautiful.”

Aydin, a trained mechanic, tells us how he used to work as a taxi driver in Bad Harzburg and Goslar a couple of years ago. He decided to retrain, and signed up with bus operator “Der Schmidt” in Wolfenbüttel, a subcontractor of MeinFernbus. He’d always wanted to travel further away, not just hang around in the Bad Harzburg neighborhood, and the idea of driving a really big vehicle with plenty of horsepower really appealed to him. And that’s what he’s doing: the MAN bus is propelled by a 440 horsepower engine, as well as AS Tronic, ZF’s 12-speed automatic transmis-sion system. Ali Aydin steers the bus, which can carry nearly 60 passengers, into the bus station in Braun-schweig, then picks up the microphone and wishes his passengers a safe onward journey – a new driver will take them the rest of the way to Munich. Aydin laughs, pulls on his green MeinFernbus anorak, and climbs out – to applause from his passengers. In 20 years of driving a taxi, he never experienced that. ■

8000scheduled

trips a weekare currently

offered by Germany’s

intercity bus operators.

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The “fabrics” out of which composite materials are made: fi berglass (in the background)

and carbon-fi ber mats.

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TECHNOLOGY

THE ART OF LIGHTWEIGHT

DESIGN

Early sample of a suspension strut-wheel mount module made out of CFRP – still a long way to go before it will be ready for series production.

The only way for cars and commercial vehicles to meet CO2 emissions targets is to lose weight. In the Composites

Tech Center in Schweinfurt, ZF is developing revolutionary weight-saving components for series production.

By Achim Neuwirth Photos by Peter Neusser

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46 1.2014

The press slowly opens – somewhat like a theater cur-tain angled at 90 degrees – to reveal a wheel mount made out of carbon fi ber-reinforced

plastic. The exceptionally durable com-ponent feels very light in the hand. Even so, it’s hard to believe what it’s made of: the material – rolled-up mats of carbon fi ber – looks more like fabric intended for the clothing industry, the kind of thing used to produce cotton sweatshirts.

Since July 2013, the ZF Composites Tech Center in Schweinfurt has been de-veloping lightweight products made out of fi ber-reinforced plastics (FRP) for a v ariety of structural components. Two types of composite materials are used: carbon fi ber-reinforced plastics (CFRP) and glass fi ber-reinforced plastics (GRP). ZF has already produced a lightweight wheel mount made out of both types of plastic. Combined with a lightweight damper, the new wheel mount takes care of damping and wheel guidance in cars – at the same time, it weighs 40 percent

Nathalie Wieber, Mathias Schramm and Alexander Hamacher (from left)

all work in the ZF Composites Tech Center.

less than more conventional designs. To make sure such weight-saving solutions are put into series production as quickly and cost-effi ciently as possible, ZF has i nvested 3.1 million euros (about 4.2 mil-lion dollars) in the Composites Tech Cen-ter, which has a total area of 400 square meters (4,300 square feet). The buildings, machinery and equipment all exude the spotlessly clean atmosphere normally a ssociated with clean-room laboratories.

“We provide the production technol-ogy expertise required to design and build functioning, pre-production proto-types – but we’re not a production f aci-lity,” is how Dr. Ignacio Lobo-Casanova, head of the Center, describes its remit. “Because there’s a very close relationship between the manufacturing processes and product characteristics of fi ber-reinforced plastics, we help the ZF divisions with their development work from a very early stage.” Dr. Michael Heselhaus, the man re-sponsible for developing the Compo sites Tech Center, goes on to explain. “Com-pared to steel or aluminum, there are so

many more variables to consider when you’re working with FRP. In other words, each component makes diff erent demands on the material and how you work with it.”

Developing prototypes in-houseOther specifi cations include target pro-duction costs, planned quantities and re-quired cycle times for series production. “We work with the product development teams to draw up detailed specifi cations covering all requirements, so we can make sure that when the FRP products go into series production, the whole process is as effi cient and cost-eff ective as possi-ble. This means, for example, adjusting product designs to achieve optimized cy-cle times while calculating the costs i nvolved,” adds Heselhaus. Another ad-vantage of the Composites Tech Center for ZF’s development network: the tech-nology company is now able to produce FRP prototypes in-house, without resort-ing to external partners. The develop-ment departments in the various ZF divi-sions very much appreciate this facility.

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TECHNOLOGY

Prototype of a combined suspension strut- wheel mount for cars, made out of

carbon fi ber-reinforced plastic (CFRP).

The main tool in the ZF Composites Tech Center: a Dieffenbacher

DCL 1000-ton press.

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Thermoset composites cannot be reshaped once they have been pro-cessed – in contrast to thermoplastic composites. Used as fi ber-reinforced plastics (FRP) in combination with long or continuous fi bers, thermoset com-posites are very strong and thermally stable – two attractive characteristics in heavy-duty automotive applications. Typically, the plastic composites are reinforced with fi berglass (glass fi ber-reinforced plastics, or GRP) or carbon fi bers (carbon fi ber-reinforced plastics, or CFRP).

The RTM process (Resin Transfer Molding) is easy to automate and benefi ts from short cycle times. In the ZF Composites Tech Center, a robot places the preformed layers of fi ber matting into a prepared mold which

is then inserted into the press. The press, which is capable of exerting up to 1,000 tons of force, then closes the mold, and a resin-hardener mix-ture is injected under high pressure. After curing, the press opens and the high-performance component can be extracted, ready for assembly.

In the prepreg process, the FRP mats are already impregnated with the resin-hardener mixture before they’re placed in the mold. So they don’t react prematurely, they must be stored at subzero temperatures. At the process-ing stage, the prepared preforms are placed in the mold, then subjected to a predefi ned pressure profi le at specifi c mold temperatures, causing the resin and hardener to react so the component is fully hardened (cured).

Two processes for two plasticsZF works with different lightweight materials and technologies.

The ZF Composites Tech Center exudes the spotlessly clean atmosphere usually associated

with clean-room laboratories (top). Calculating material properties for

manufacturing FRP panels (bottom).

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TECHNOLOGY

Making the most of every fi ber In practical terms, collaboration between the ZF divisions and the Composites Tech Center – which is managed by the Corpo-rate Production unit in Friedrichshafen – happens like this: once the general param-eters and concept for an FRP component have been specifi ed, the product engi-neers turn to the Composites Tech Center for advice and support. The fi rst step is to produce material samples, which at this stage bear no resemblance to the fi nished product. They are tested for conformabil-ity, toughness and temperature resistance, along with a host of other properties.

Virtual testingThe next step is for the math wizards to process the test data using simulation tools. A high-performance workstation is used to model every detail of the prototype – the part that will eventually end up as a CFRP wheel mount, for example. The software analyzes how the component will behave under diff erent load spectra, and how its geometry could be optimized where neces-

sary. The tools are even c apable of testing how well the component will function in a vehicle – but only virtually, of course.

Only then does the Schweinfurt team start working on the actual product proto-types. In the case of the wheel mount, a number of shaped layers are cut out of the fi ber mats, and a robot then drapes them – paying meticulous attention to the orien-tation of the fi bers – on a foam preform that is geometrically identical to the actual component. Lobo-Casanova and his team also develop a suitable mold for the press. Once the prototype has been produced u sing the RTM process (see box on left), it must prove itself in real-world vehicle tests. For testing the suspension strut-wheel mount module, ZF uses a very ex-clusive car: the company’s all-electric i nnovation prototype.

Adding value instead of cost“Emissions legislation is the main factor driving lightweight design in the automo-tive industry,” explains Lobo-Casanova, “because it will be very diffi cult for car-

makers to meet future emissions targets simply by improving their engines.” The ZF Composites Tech Center only handles some of the company’s lightweight design initiatives, concentrating mainly on ther-moset FRP materials (see box on left). ZF is also testing thermoplastic FRP compos-ites (such as organic sheet), as well as lighter metals.

Before ZF will even consider building structural components out of FRP, or a pprove the production of prototypes by the Schweinfurt Compo sites Tech Center, they must meet two important criteria. First, GRP and CFRP will only be used if they are the materials that best match the properties required of the component. And second, the new component must be capable of integrating multiple functions – ideally by replacing several hitherto separate components. “This allows us to off set a large proportion of the additional cost that’s still associated with using FRP as a source material and with the com-plex processing i nvolved,” explains Lobo-Casanova. ■

“We provide the production technology expertise required to design and build functioning, pre-production prototypes – but we’re not a production facility.”

DR. IGNACIO LOBO-CASANOVA

Dr. Ignacio Lobo-Casanova (left) with Dr. Michael Heselhaus.

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1.2014

many classes of vehicles – but so far, hasn’t been cost-effi cient enough for smaller cars.

That’s all set to change, thanks to ZF’s CDC 1XL (pronounced “one axle”). As the name suggests, the new system is fi tted to just one axle – the rear one, which has the greatest infl uence on the car’s driving be-havior because rear-axle loading varies so much. The technical concept behind sin-gle-axle CDC is the same as CDC for four wheels: a proportional valve constantly regulates the fl ow of oil into and out of the damper. The faster oil fl ows through the

C ompact and subcompact cars and vans dominate town and country roads around the world, whisk-

ing commuters through rush-hour traffi c, ferrying shoppers to supermarkets, and sometimes even heading off on vacation, crammed full of people and luggage.

Engineers have devised all kinds of i n-genious ways to make these vehicles more spacious. But they haven’t managed to solve one important question that a ff ects both comfort and safety: just what is the ideal damping force? For safety r easons, damper settings are usually opti-mized for full loads – the worst-case sce-nario. But this means that when you’re driving alone, with little or no luggage, the constant jolting caused by the hard damper settings soon takes all the plea-sure out of driving.

Damping force “as needed”There is a solution, however: an adaptive damping system such as CDC (Continuous Damping Control). The damping proper-ties of conventional shock absorbers are set at the factory and can’t be changed. But in ZF’s CDC system, electronically con-trolled dampers on all four wheels adjust the hardness of the suspension to suit cur-rent driving conditions in real time. A cen-tral control unit (ECU) analyzes a steady stream of information from dozens of sen-sors in the vehicle, does the calculations, and issues the necessary instructions. The technology is already well-established in

What exactly are the best damper settings? It’s a thorny question, especially for manufacturers of compact

and subcompact cars and vans. Hard, for more safety and better handling? Or soft, for greater comfort?

ZF has the solution, and it’s called CDC 1XL.

SMARTDAMPING

In February 2014, the Honda Civic Tourer became the

fi rst car to offer CDC 1XL as an option.

Pho

to: H

ond

a

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51

TECHNOLOGY

valve, the softer the suspension. To harden the suspension, the valve constricts the fl ow, so the piston in the damper can’t dis-place the oil so easily. The electromagnetic actuators in the valve are controlled by the ECU, and respond in milliseconds.

Just rolling along…ZF engineers have built sensors into all CDC control units. The sensors are capa-ble of collecting key data – on road condi-tions and body velocity in particular – even without complex connections to the rest of the vehicle’s electronics. The data is used to calculate the ideal damping force for ambient driving conditions. Most of the time, the system varies the damping force without the vehicle’s occupants even no-ticing. When cornering, for example, the dampers are hardened – the best setting for safety and handling. You’re only likely to notice the system if you have to make a sudden evasive maneuver, especially if the car is fully laden.

In everyday driving conditions, how-ever, you’ll most enjoy a car fi tted with CDC 1XL in the least spectacular scenario: when you’re cruising with a minimal load. Because thanks to the adaptive damping of the rear axle, you’ll fi nd yourself just roll-ing (very comfortably) along. ■

Heart of the systemAn electromagnetic proportional valve reduces or increases oil fl ow within the CDC damper in just fractions of a second, instantly reducing or increasing the hard-ness of the suspension. The mechanism is controlled by sophisticated electronic hardware and software – all designed and built by ZF.

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 At fi rst, cars were synony-mous with freedom. For young people across large parts of the Western world, a driving license was the

golden ticket to discos, drive-ins and fun with friends. For most of the twentieth century, car owners were the leaders of the pack: weekends of good times with pals were soon followed by weekends of canoodling on back seats. It wasn’t long before the car became a status symbol. In fact, whole generations were labelled by reference to cars, like the “Golf genera-tion”. Those were good times for anyone involved in selling cars.

Dreams of freedom and social status are still used to sell cars today, of course. But with the advent of the “Millennial” genera-tion, a profound transformation is taking place. Cars are turning into consumer items. The smartphone has replaced the driving license as a means of gaining inde-pendence and integrating successfully with one’s own peer group. Young people are no longer particularly interested in owning a car – nowadays, simply having permanent access to a “mobility solution” is regarded as hip and happening. The “sharing econ-omy” refl ects a new culture of sharing and environmental awareness.

But what about the automotive indus-try? Heads of carmaking companies long ago realized that sooner or later, at least part of their business will depend on alter-native mobility solutions. BMW, for exam-ple, partnered up with Sixt to bring the “drive now” car-sharing service to market. Daimler is an investor in Car2Go, as well as the above-mentioned platform, carpool-ing. At the same time, automakers and their suppliers are all frantically working to incorporate new communication tech-nologies into their vehicles that will ulti-mately make cars more intelligent and more networked – in a word, smart.

Making technology relevantThis is changing the whole driving experi-ence, albeit along familiar lines. That’s be-cause most manufacturers are fi xated on a “personal computing” paradigm, attempt-ing to integrate the user experience (UX) familiar to many people from their smart-phones – text messaging, navigation, en-tertainment – into the dashboard instru-mentation surrounding the driver. But is the industry choosing the right UX and usage model for these new technologies? Is turning cars into giant smartphones the right way to make them more a ccessible and relevant to users?

Heads of carmaking companies long ago realized that sooner or later, part of their business will depend

on alternative mobility solutions.

ROOMS ON WHEELS

Anyone trying to predict the future of the auto mobile needs to imagine something a little more

s ophisticated than smartphones on wheels. Till Grusche argues that voice and gesture recognition

will be a key feature in the cars of tomorrow.

Mobile paradigm shiftThis shift in attitudes is largely driven by the digital economy. With her companies Zipcar and Buzzcar, American entrepre-neur Robin Chase created the blueprint for modern car-sharing services. For over ten years, German company carpooling has used their web portal mitfahr gelegenheit.de to advertise unoccupied car seats to cost-conscious, socially aware travelers wishing to make medium or long-distance journeys. And Internet giant Google is a lready working on the next major para-digm shift with its driver less cars, proto-types of which can frequently be observed on test drives up and down Silicon Valley.

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53

Using technology collaborativelyAs we search for better models, it might make more sense to take a very childish conception of the car as our starting point. Because maybe the way small children draw cars – as a more or less square box on wheels – is, in reality, the best way to re-imagine the car of the future. In the coming Age of Smart Cars, the car could well be transformed into a small, mobile room: a room in which people would i nteract and share information using ad-vanced collaborative technology.

Let’s take the example of a car-sharing group traveling down a highway in a full vehicle. The driver suggests having lunch together in the next town. As a responsi-ble driver, he doesn’t attempt to use his own mobile to fi nd a suitable place to eat; he asks one of his fellow passengers to do so instead. Whereupon everybody in the car pulls out their smartphones, runs searches and then discusses the results. Once agreement has been reached, the driver enters the most promising result into his satnav. This is the typical “per-sonal computing” paradigm – in this case, experienced by four people in parallel.

Cooperative interfaceBut the process would run so much more smoothly over an interface optimized for cooperation. One passenger might say, for example, “fast food”, while another might say “I’d prefer a small local restaurant”. The map on the driver’s head-up display would update itself in real time to show possible destinations, eventually focusing on the one preferred by the majority.

Or let’s imagine a couple who want to buy a property. Why spend time and en-ergy at home researching properties on real-estate websites, when ultimately they’ll want to drive to the property and inspect it in any case? Wouldn’t it make

more sense for the couple to travel directly to the area that interests them and start their search in the car? The vehicle’s in-car systems would feed them relevant in-formation in response to their gestures, conversation and geographical location.

To turn scenarios like this into reality, the automotive industry needs to rethink the current models for interacting and in-terfacing with in-vehicle computer technol-ogy. As it stands, the car of today is a physi-cal interface, into which automakers are

ESSAY

Your driving license will become an

a uthentication tool, giving you access to an entire Smart Car ecosystem – however

that may work.

nient smart rooms on wheels could be, their imaginations start to soar. The con-trolled environment inside a vehicle would provide better conditions for using audiovisual media than most living rooms or offi ces, for example. Thought experi-ments have already suggested all kinds of applications – from shared entertainment experiences through to interactive offi ce meetings in driverless vehicles. Ulti-mately, none of them have very much to do with the traditional driving experience – these are collective, interactive experi-ences based on sophisticated computer technology that just happen to take place inside a car.

Goal: the Smart Car ecosystemOf course such gigantic steps in automo-tive development are not made overnight. The high-speed development cycles that characterize the digital industry tend to slow to a more sensible pace when it comes to maneuvering several tons of steel and aluminum through the neighborhood. But you don’t have to be a prophet to be able to predict that sometime in the future, a driving license won’t be so much an indi-cation of driving ability as a kind of a uthentication tool, giving you access to an entire Smart Car ecosystem – however that may work. If today’s automakers want to maintain some kind of ongoing rele-vance to the social environment in which the (great) grandchildren of today’s “Gen-eration Y” will eventually interact, they might want to focus less of their attention on giant smartphones and more of it on rooms on wheels. Whenever you see a suc-cessful system come to fruition, you can be sure that the development process started by attempting to deliver exactly the kind of real-world experience that users really want – even if they weren’t aware of it u ntil the system came into existence. ■

Author Till Grusche qualifi ed in engineering and economics, and now works as head of marketing at carpooling.com, Europe’s largest car-sharing network with six million users.

now incorporating additional physical in-terfaces such as touchscreens. But this is only a tentative fi rst step: in the future, new modes of input – especially voice rec-ognition and gesture controls – will play a major role. Many exciting solutions have already been developed using technologies based on acoustic or spatial referencing systems, like the voice and gesture-con-trolled prototype RoomE, developed by de-sign company frog, which uses the whole room as a user interface. Once designers start to think about how useful and conve-

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54 1.2014

DIVERSITY IS KEY

In HR departments everywhere, diversity is the next big thing. International companies know that a colorful

workforce is more innovative, more productive – and more a ttractive. But the gap between purely symbolic policies and genuine cultural change can be hard to bridge.

Text: Friederike Beyer

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55

 T hat the human brain is a mar-velous machine is something everybody knows nowadays – even companies are starting to get the message. Young

Sunwoo’s brain is an especially m iraculous piece of machinery. This ZF employee can think about multiple things at the same time, his speech center switches eff ort-lessly between multiple languages, his body language adapts instantly to which-ever cultural milieu he happens to be in. He can apply Asian and German perspec-tives simultaneously – 360-degree cultural awareness, all the time, everywhere.

In fact, aside from his degree in Busi-ness Administration, Sunwoo has that s pecial something that is increasingly r egarded as the key to tomorrow’s entre-preneurial success. He is a citizen of the world. Thanks to his background and up-bringing, the 33-year-old manager appears to maneuver eff ortlessly through the com-plexities of global business.

Cultural pitfalls“My parents come from Korea, I was born in Duisburg, and I studied Economics in Seoul and Shanghai,” he explains. Follow-ing an internship with BMW, Sunwoo came to ZF in 2006 via the international trainee program. He then worked in C ontrolling, did a stint in Business Devel-opment, and from 2011, was Commercial Manager of ZF’s Mexican operation in Saltillo. Now he’s living back on Lake Con-stance and working in the Mergers & Acquisitions and joint ventures unit.

Young Sunwoo feels at home in many different places. For this 33-year-old German with Korean roots, changing cultural perspective is just something you do as a matter of course.

WORKING ENVIRONMENT

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56 1.2014

“I can dodge cultural pitfalls relatively eas-ily, because I’m always looking at things from an international perspective,” he laughs. If you believe the trend scouts in the HR industry, an employee like Sunwoo is a major win for his employer ZF right down the line. Because it’s a long time since the technology company depended solely on sales made in Germany. China, for example, is becoming steadily more im-portant as an overseas market. But how can companies position themselves most eff ectively in this rapidly changing world?

Competitive advantage: diversityNowadays, diversity is increasingly seen as a competitive advantage. “Many compa-nies make systematic use of their employ-ees’ diversity in order to achieve their goals more eff ectively,” asserts Professor Dr. Meike Tilebein, Director of the Insti-tute for Diversity Studies in Engineering at the University of Stuttgart. In many large companies, the tensions between global and local requirements have increased considerably, she continues. But when they recruit skilled workers from multicul-tural backgrounds for global product de-velopment, the outcome is generally posi-tive. “Sustainable success in international markets often depends on how close the senior management team is to the overall cultural profi le of the business.”

A study carried out by Roland Berger Strategy Consultants in 2012 came to very similar conclusions: a diverse workforce improves access to lucrative markets. The study also identifi ed a recruitment advan-tage. In the global battle for the top talent and best brains, many companies are try-ing to reposition themselves as more open, heterogeneous and permeable.

Balancing out the gendersThese are also important goals for Silke Wolf, who is responsible for all diversity-related issues at ZF. “We now know that mixed teams are more innovative and pro-duce better results than groups with a h omogeneous employee structure,” e xplains Wolf. Future workforce develop-ment will be defi ned and guided by four key priorities: Gender Balance, All Ages, Diff erent Skills and Mixed Cultures.

Because what many companies really need is in-depth, systemic change. “If you want to increase the proportion of women in senior management positions over the long term, you have to initiate a compre-hensive cultural transformation – from the top down,” confi rms Professor Dr. Martina Schraudner, Director of the Responsible Research & Innovation unit at Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, Germany. “Every company must work out how to drive forward such an in-house initiative most eff ectively.”

The Daimler Group, for example, is aiming for a 20 percent increase in the number of women in executive positions by 2020, and has successfully linked this target with b onus payments to senior managers. Fol-lowing a 12 percent increase in 2013, Daimler is currently right on schedule.

Just a few years ago, only HR depart-ments got excited about diversity. Now it’s starting to interest other specialist depart-ments as well. As a result, more and more companies are systematically reviewing all their business a ctivities in terms of d iversity. According to consulting fi rm Synergy Consult, based in Cologne, as many as one third of the DAX 30 compa-nies are using specifi c indicators to track their diversity management activities.

Global Women SummitJürgen Holeksa, Head of Corporate HR at ZF, is also working on a wide variety of diversity-focused projects. Together, he and Silke Wolf organized the fi rst Global Women Leadership Summit for female executives working at ZF. At the end of February, more than 130 women from 12 countries met up for two days of intensive dialog and discussion. Working together, the women managers identifi ed what they regarded as the key concerns surrounding women’s careers and the whole issue of diversity. Key requirements at the top of their list were m entoring, job rotation and more fl exible working-time models.

There’s plenty to do: Diversity Offi cer Silke Wolf in conversation with delegates at ZF’s fi rst Global Women Leadership Summit.

“As an employer, ZF must be as a ttractive to as many diff erent

people as possible.”JÜRGEN HOLEKSA

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57

WORKING ENVIRONMENT

All important issues, believes Jennifer Hubbard, who works as a senior executive in the Finance department of ZF North America. “We already have a good level of diversity, especially in terms of age profi les and variety of cultures,” says the manager. “But in numerical terms, we could cer-tainly do more to improve our gender bal-ance.” China is already ahead of the rest of the world in this respect, confi rms Xue-ying Jiang, manager of ZF’s Global Com-modities Purchasing unit in Shanghai. “Whether you’re male or female makes no diff erence in China. We have many women in management positions.”

Transforming corporate culture in favor of a more diverse HR structure is also an important target for ZF CEO Dr. Stefan Sommer. “We must establish new models for management careers,” he emphasized at the Summit. Long hours in the offi ce and on the road are no longer appropriate metrics for career positions.

Intercultural trainingWhere the concept of diversity hasn’t yet penetrated in depth, sometimes smaller, local initiatives can help. At ZF’s Auerbach site, Dr. Hong Yu teaches her colleagues about “Intercultural Communication”. Born in China, she has lived in Germany for 22 years and works in Purchasing and Supply Chain Management. She knows e xactly where the pitfalls are lurking when Chinese and German mentalities collide.

Of course the hot topic of diversity has its critics, concerned about over-narrow defi -nitions. Thus Professor Dr. Jutta All-mendinger, President of the WZB Berlin Social Science Center, warns against p rioritizing business success, diff ering management styles and skills shortages as the main motives for pursuing diversity. “Furthering the careers of people from di-verse backgrounds is primarily a question of equal opportunities and equal rights.”

Playing the role of mediatorThe fact is, people with roots in multiple cultures are exceptionally quick to recog-nize diff erences of opinion or expression, often helping to keep teams steady and balanced. In many cases, they act as a kind of buff er or intermediary when there are cultural misunderstandings, because they are readier to adapt to diff erent pat-terns of thought and behavior, and fi nd it relatively easy to learn new languages.

On this issue, world citizen Young Sun-woo has a suggestion: “I think it would make sense if ZF standardized on a single in-house language in the future. This would attract more global applicants.” Young Sunwoo has plenty of other diver-sity-related suggestions for his employer. After all, his brain simply isn’t designed to look at things from just one perspective. ■

Friederike Beyer works in ZF Corporate Communica-

tion, where she looks after the employee newspaper.

The women leaders put together a collage of iconic images for the Summit. But most of the time was spent discussing and defi ning the most important diversity issues at ZF.

“The direct, G erman way of criticizing can

have disastrous consequences

in Asia.”DR. HONG YU

Pho

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(1)

Our app for iPad and iPhone has

more on this topic:www.zf.com/drive-app

EN_57_ZF_Drive_01_2014 57 04.06.14 17:56

58 1.2014

A broad fi eld, ripe for innovationZF has been building transmissions for agricultural machinery

for the last 75 years. It all started in 1937, when the company built a transmission for farm tractors capable of up to 22 horsepower.

YESTERDAY AND TODAY

yesterday

todayand

ZF built the A 12 “universal transmission” back in 1937. Optimized for engines capable of producing up to 16 kW (22 bhp), the unit became the proud ancestor of several generations of ZF tractor drivelines. A hugely important product for the company, the A 12 was mass-produced until 1951. Tractor manufacturer Wahl (see photo) was one of the fi rst customers to install the A 12 in their vehicles.

ZF presents the TPT 11 – a modular transmission that can be upgraded for the important and popular output range between 85 and 115 horsepower. The power-shift transmission is constructed as an in-line unit, meaning that the transmission input shaft is level with the center of the rear axle. This makes it possible to design vehicles with low centers of gravity and re-duced overall height – like the Steyr Multi (see photo).

The A 12 universal transmission

c ombined a manual gearbox and rear-

wheel drive in a single driveline system.

ZF’s TPT 11 powershift transmission has 32

forward and 32 reverse speeds, along with an ergonomically tuned

quad powershift.

EN_58_ZF_Drive_01_2014 58 02.06.14 11:55

59

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SERVICE

About this magazine

Publisher ZF Friedrichshafen AG, 88038 Friedrichshafen, Germany Publications Officer Matthias Lenz,ZF Friedrichshafen AG,88038 Friedrichshafen, GermanyPhone: +49 7541 77-960044, Fax: +49 7541 77-2764,Editors in Chief Martin Demel, Wolfgang MillerEditorial Team Michael Hopp, Frank Thoma (Managing Editor), Heinz-Jürgen Köhler (Senior Editor), Robert Buchmeier, Frank Discher, Corina Dreher, Torsten FiddelkeOther Contributors to this IssueJoachim Becker, Friederike Beyer, Birk Grüling, Till Grusche, Jörg Heuer, Andreas Neemann, Achim Neuwirth, Melanie Stahr, Andreas TechelServices Hoffmann und Campe Verlag GmbH, Hamburg, GermanyDesign Jessica Winter, Tobias ZabellPrinting Bodensee MedienzentrumGmbH & Co. KG, Lindauer Strasse 11,88069 Tettnang, Germanydrive Reader ServiceHoffmann und Campe Verlag GmbHPostfach 13057320105 Hamburg, GermanyPhone: +49 40 688 79-137Fax: +49 40 688 79-199E-mail: [email protected]

Photo Credits Cover: Dominik Gigler; p. 2: Stephanie Füssenich, Getty Images; p. 3: ZF; pp. 4-5: Dominik Gigler, Eva Häberle, ddp Images, Peter Neusser, laif; pp. 6-7: Bildarchiv Werner Otto, ZF; pp. 8-9: Chery, Mercedes-Benz, Tata, Terberg, Kinkisharyo, BMW Group; pp. 10-11: Hagen Schönherr, ZF (3); pp. 12-13: ddp Images; pp. 14-15: Getty Images, VW, Audi, BMW Group; pp. 16-17: ZF, Corbis (2); pp. 18-19: Sascha Bierl, ZF; pp. 20-21: Dominik Gigler; pp. 22-23: Getty Images; pp. 24-25: Corbis (2), Dorhout R&D LLC, Sven Kleinwoerdemann/AMAZONE; pp. 26-27: plainpicture/Caiaimages, plainpicture/Johner, Bernd Jonkmanns/laif, ZF; pp. 28-37: Dominik Gigler, ZF (1), German Consulate General in São Paulo (1); pp. 38-43: Eva Häberle; pp. 30, 34: istockphoto; pp. 44-49: Peter Neusser; pp. 50-51: Honda, illustrations: ZF; pp. 52-53: private; pp. 54-55: Felix Kästle; pp. 56-57: Sabine Kunzer (3), Felix Kästle, Bernhard Huber (1); p. 58: ZF (3), Steyr; p. 59: Dominik Gigler, ZF

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1.2014THE ZF MAGAZINETHE ZF MAGAZINE

BRAZIL

ALWAYS ON THE GO

PLUG-IN HYBRIDPowertrain of the future

DIVERSITYVictory through variety

TECHNOLOGYThe art of lightweight design

EN_59_ZF_Drive_01_2014 59 02.06.14 12:42

We are studying at different universities, but have one thing in common – a passion for Formula Student. This is a student design competition which demands commitment with all your heart. Together, we will design an entire race car from scratch in national and international teams. This is us – Johanna, Meike, and Tobias – ZF’s students at the Cooperative State University. That enables us to experience theory applied to practice as part of this educational concept and makes us benefit from ZF’s optimal support on the Formula Student endeavor. Find out more about us and ZF at: www.im-with-zf.com.

WE ARE WITH ZF. STUDENTS AND MOTORSPORTS FANS.

Scan the code and fi nd out more about us and what we do at ZF.

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