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Finland's Sisu Axles and Fabco Automotive Corp. have announced an agreement whereby Fabco becomes the official representative in North America for Sisu front and rear hub reduction axles, effective immediately.

According to Al Sunderland, president of Fabco Automotive, Emeryvilie, Calif., a business unit of Transportation Technologies, Inc. (TTI), the agreement allows the company to now offer a full range of axles and gearboxes for its targeted markets.

"For years, Fabco bas been a Tier 1 supplier of steerable drive axles, transfer cases and PTOs for both on- and off-highway heavy-duty vehicle manufacturers," Sunderland said. "The addition of the Sisu products allows us to meet the needs of a much wider range of customers including axles capacities from 10,000 to 105,000 1b."

Sisu Axles Inc. was formed in 2000 when Partek Inc. sold its heavy vehicle axle business to company management and a group of investors leading to the formation of the new company. Sisu expects a turnover of $23 million in 2001. The company is headquartered in Hameenlinna, Finland, and employs 105 people.

About 60 percent of Sisu Axle's products are exported, evenly divided amongst Europe, North America and the rest of the world's markets, said Matti V. Tuominen, president and CEO. He said the agreement with Fabco represented a strengthened commitment to improving Sisu's worldwide presence and increasing its business in North America is a major part of that strategy. "To do that, we needed a local presence and this relationship with Fabco is an ideal match," Tuominen said.

Sisu has been somewhat active in the North American markets since the late 1980s, primarily with direct sales to equipment manufacturers. The company had an agreement with Truck Tech Ltd., Bellevue, Wash., which in parallel, has concluded an agreement with Fabco to provide full-time support to Fabco's customer service activities.

Specifically, the agreement with Sisuallows Fabco to now offer a complete range of axles and gearboxes for use primarily in heavy vocational trucks typically used in logging and oil field applications, and opens up a variety of new customers in the specialty vehicle markets, Sunderland said.

Fabco's line includes steerable drive axles from 12,000 lb. to 23,000 lb. load capacity, all of which are exposed Cardan joint designs developed for use on-highway, as well as occasional off-highway and rough terrain applications.

# posted by Medical Information : 11:09 PM  0 Comments

Stewart & Stevenson Services Inc., Houston, Texas, has been awarded the Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV)A1 Competitive Rebuy (A1CR) contract to produce trucks and trailers for the US. Army The contract was awarded by the U.S. Army's Tank-Automotive and Armament Command (TACOM) and is potentially worth as much as $2 billion. Stewart & Stevenson won the contract over Oshkosh Truck Corp.

The five-year contract calls for an estimated 11,000 multi-use medium tactical vehicles and trailers for the Army, with an option for 12,000 more. Production of the FMTV A1CR is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2004.

Stewart & Stevenson Tactical Vehicle Systems LP is the prime contractor for the U.S. Army's current family of Medium Tactical vehicles (FMTV), a contract hadn't been competitively rebid since it was awarded in 1991. The current FMTV trucks indude 2.5 ton and 5 ton trucks in more than 15 variants, and are manufactured by S&S in Sealy, Texas. Since winning the 1991 FMTV contract, the S&S has manufactured more than 20,000 trucks and trailers.

According to Stewart & Stevenson, its proposal featured enhancements to the FMTV A1 including an EPA 2004 compliant engine, soldier-suggested enhancements, greater reliability and additional reductions in life cycle costs and logistics burden.

While S&S has not announced sourcing details for the A1CR, the current generation FMTY trucks are powered by what was known as the Caterpillar model 3126 diesel and is now the C7. The 7.2 L six-cylinder, turbocharged and aftercooled diesel is rated 275 hp in the 2.5 ton truck and 330 hp in the 5 ton version, both at 2400 rpm. Torque at 1600 rpm is 817 lb.ft. in 2.5 ton truck and 851 lb.ft. in the 5 ton version. The engine is capable of running on diesel fuel, DF-2, JP-4, JP-8 or VV-F-800 fuels.

The diesel drives an Allison MD 3070 PT automatic/select seven-speed, electronically controlled transmission with fill-time all-wheel drive with integral transfer case. In normal operations, there is a 30 percent front, 70 percent rear torque split. In the off-road use, the torque is split equally equal front and rear.

# posted by Medical Information : 11:07 PM  0 Comments