trailer world issue Two 2010

Issue Two 2010 21 We all came to this year‘s IAA with mixed feelings“, admitted Dr. Bert Brauers, Member of the BPW Board of Management and responsible for the company‘s sales. „But the mood in Hanover was outstanding; all in all, we registered excellent contacts at our booth on all the days of the trade-fair“. The BPW Managing Director is particularly satis- fied especially with the great interest shown in the company‘s new products from abroad. „For us, the IAA came at just the right moment in time“, says Brauers. „After reaching rock bot- tominthelasttwoyears,wearenowclearlyback on the road to recovery and benefit from the positive incentives for our business. However, it will still take some years until the trailer sector will gain again the product activities of the year 2004 to 2006 “. BPW with new disc brake and the intelligent trailer “This IAA has given a clear start signal”, was also the comment from Matthias Wissmann, President of the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA). “The trade-fair is not only the principle leading international trade-fair for transport, logistics and mobil- ity: it is also the first show after the crisis for companies in this key sector to present their new products.” 272 world premiers set a new record, turning the IAA into a festival of in- novations. Numerous companies used the difficult period to focus on developing new, highly innovative products, as clearly indicated by the sum of €21bn invested by companies in the branch in 2009 in research and development alone. BPW’s presentation at this year’s IAA was focused above all on two new products, con- sisting on the one hand of BPW’s proprietary ECO trailer disc brake development. This is the market’s first disc brake specially de- veloped to suit the requirements of a trailer. Meanwhile BPW has already fitted more than 100,000 brake callipers with a daily volume of 1,000 units on average. Then on the other hand, there’s the “Intel- ligent Trailer Net (IT Net)”. This is a further development of electronic chassis compo- nents for trailer which uses new developments in data bus and LED (light emitting diode) technology with the added benefit of saving weight, material and time. “Together with the ECO Tronic EBS, the IT Net is now the second member of our new product family”, says Bert Brauers. “This proprietary intelligent wiring solution is based on the concept of a com- pletely new system of architecture. LED tech- nology introduces drastic simplification of the wiring, for example for trailer lighting, BPW welcomes domestic and foreign customers in Hanover. In Hanover, BPW’s domestic and foreign companies had an opportunity to gain their own impression of the company’s latest de- velopments for trailer solutions. “I have been an interested trade visitor to the IAA Com- mercial Vehicles exhibition for many years”, said Johan van de Wetering, Director at Af- rit, the South African trailer manufacturer. “Each time, arriving at the BPW booth is like coming home, with lots of familiar faces and an opportunity to relax a little from the usual hustle and bustle of the trade-fair”. His com- pany has been working together with BPW already since 1992, importing components from Europe for production on the South African market. “Our vehicle configurations differ somewhat from those in Europe, so that we integrate the BPW products in our trailers and adapt them to suit the re- quirements in South Africa”, said van de Wetering. “This is why it is extremely Photos:Fünf6 Industry

trailer world issue Two 2010

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