Global technology company ZF is celebrating a major production milestone this year, with the one millionth unit of its TraXon transmission system rolling off the assembly line at Friedrichshafen in Germany.
It has been a long journey to get to this point, ZF Commercial Vehicle Solutions division head Winfried Gründler says, with the TraXon first going into production in 2014.
“When it comes to transmission systems, TraXon sets the standards for commercial vehicles and off-highway applications,” he says.
“Manufacturing the millionth TraXon system is a proud achievement for our production team and is a statement to TraXon’s enduring appeal as a lightweight, robust and intelligent system.
“TraXon has established an industry-leading reputation thanks to the quality of its design, reliability, and its ability to deliver energy efficiency, making it a valuable solution for commercial vehicle owners in terms of Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).
“It will continue to provide vehicle manufacturers and fleet operators with substantial value well into the future.”
Production recently expanded globally to ZF’s plants in Jiaxing, China and Sorocaba, Brazil, and it has taken just 18 months to double the number of TraXon units in order to meet the growing demand for efficient systems from customers all over the world.
It was only last year that TraXon reached the 500,000 unit milestone, when at that time the transmission was made almost exclusively at the main plant in Friedrichshafen.
In the next step for the TraXon system, ZF is gearing up for the launch of its successor, the TraXon 2, which will go into series production in 2024.
TraXon 2 will include further innovations, including ZF’s in-house mechatronics and a new electronic control unit. The latter will enable new software functions through outstanding computing power, such as cyber security and updates via mobile communications / WLAN – so-called over-the-air updates.