ALWAYS ON THE GO - ZF Friedrichshafen AG

T H E Z F M A G A Z I N E 1.2014
THE ZF MAGAZINE
1.2014
BRAZIL
ALWAYS
ON T HE GO
PLUG-IN HYBRID
Powertrain of the future
DIVERSITY
Victory through variety
TECHNOLOGY
The art of lightweight design
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Now on iPad and iPhone
To 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
videos 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.
1.2014
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EDITORIAL
“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
There is no longer any doubt that human mobility is
undergoing a radical transformation. This upheaval is
largely driven by changes in customer expectations:
we are observing a shift in what people want and
expect from their cars across all parts of society.
Where interest once focused on high performance
and sporty handling, now drivers are prioritizing networking, 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 technologies that will make vehicles more energy-efficient
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
in the technologies of the future – such as electrical
and electronic engineering, sensors and lightweight
construction – to the same high standards we have
already 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
hybrid unit represents one response to this challenge. 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 operation 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.
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28
BRAZIL
The ultimate
urban mobility
challenge? We
visit the megacity
of São Paulo.
38
12
BUS BOOM
In Germany,
intercity buses
are a new,
inexpensive
way to travel.
GOING HYBRID
In Formula One,
hybrid power units
are raring to go.
Elsewhere, they’ve
already arrived.
44
LOSING WEIGHT
Experts at the ZF
Composites Tech
Center are developing all-new production methods.
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CONTENTS
TECHNOLOGY
GLOBALIZATION
12
HYBRID IS HOT!
Plug-in hybrids combine the
advantages of internal combustion
engines and electric motors in a
single, superior power unit.
28
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.
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
44
THE ART OF
LIGHTWEIGHT DESIGN
Less weight means lower fuel
consumption and fewer emissions.
ZF is developing ultra-lightweight
components for series production.
54
50
SMART DAMPING
Soft for comfort, hard for safety:
ZF’s adaptive damper system
CDC 1XL can do both.
MAGAZINE
52
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.
ROOMS ON WHEELS
Are cars turning into smartphones on
wheels? That’s not going far enough,
argues Till Grusche in his essay.
MOBILITY
26
38
ON THE ROAD AGAIN
Eight hours a day at the wheel, and
then what? A ZF study investigates
the working lives of truck drivers.
DIVERSITY IS KEY
Mixed teams work together more
harmoniously and more successfully:
the true significance of diversity.
59
SERVICE
Masthead and subscriptions
You’ll find more info
on selected stories
in this issue in our
free app for iPad and
iPhone, available at
www.zf.com/drive-app
ON TOUR
Intercity buses are trendy! Who’s
traveling on them, and what can
they expect to find on board?
This icon shows you
where to find the app.
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.
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NEWS
More power to an
industrial 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-efficient. And
thanks to a high overall gearing ratio,
they also convert the electric motor’s
rotational velocity into speed with
exceptional efficiency.
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NEW VEHICLES
AUTOMOTIVATED
BY ZF TECHNOLOGY
From Chinese tractor to Indian subcompact,
from Los Angeles metro train
to German electromobile – all these recently
launched vehicles are equipped with ZF technology.
1 The RA 1804 tractor built by Chinese
6 The new BMW i3 is fitted with a ZF
agricultural machinery manufacturer Chery is
“shift-by-wire” gearshift system, with speeds
equipped with ZF’s T-7232 tractor transmission.
selected using a rotary switch mounted directly on
The unit’s 40 forward and 40 reverse gears ensure
the steering column. The switch can be toggled
power is transmitted perfectly. Controlled by
forward or backward to set the direction of travel.
proportional valves, ZF’s powershift technology
The electric vehicle also has ZF chassis and electronic
means gearshifts remain precise even under load.
components on board.
2
In the new C-Class from Mercedes-Benz,
ZF’s 6-speed manual transmission is easy to use
and extremely efficient. The new series features
other ZF technology, too, including chassis and
electronic components, plus the energy-efficient
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 tractor, which has five forward
and three reverse speeds plus a converter lockup
clutch for high fuel efficiency. 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 Friedrichshafen, the
transmissions are built at ZF’s Gainesville plant.
ZF is using aluminum transmission housings for
the first time in the U.S.
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NEWS
1
2
4
5
3
6
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“As everyone knows,
ZF is something special
in Germany’s
corporate landscape.”
ZF MUSIC AWARD
Soulful performance
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 final concert in Graf-Zeppelin-Haus in Friedrichshafen, 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.
On the occasion
of the cornerstone
laying ceremony,
ZF CEO Stefan Sommer
(left) presented
ZF’s latest products to
Baden-Württemberg’s
Minister President
Winfried Kretschmann.
ZF FORUM
Understanding technology
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-office 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-efficient building is scheduled to coincide with ZF’s Centenary Celebration in 2015.
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NEWS
CONSOLIDATED ACCOUNTS
Another good year
The ZF Group finished fiscal 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 fiscal year came to 954 million
euros, while expenditure on research and
development (R&D) totaled 836 million
euros – nine percent higher than in the
previous fiscal year.
SERIES PARTNERSHIP
Fast start in U.S. motorsport
Since the start of the 2014 season, ZF has been official 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.
INDIA AND RUSSIA
New plants
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 production facility in Naberezhnye Chelny, Russia, is
already in operation: the joint venture between
ZF and Russia’s largest commercial vehicle manufacturer, Kamaz, celebrated the official 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.
550
people
will be employed
at ZF’s new sites
in Pune and
Naberezhnye
Chelny.
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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
T
The turbocharged,
electrically assisted
power units used
in Formula One
cars can generate
up to 850 bhp.
he Formula One racing cars
accelerate rapidly down the
straight and sizzle past the
spectators on the stands.
What’s missing? The traditional 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
turbocharged gasoline engines assisted
by new electric motors and electronics.
Unlike the old Kinetic Energy Recovery 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 capacity 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 consumption 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 offering 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 first year. Since
2010, the top seller on the list of all-electric
vehicles has been the Nissan Leaf, with
total global sales of around 100,000 units.
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...
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The Formula One racing teams are not
alone: German carmakers have just
launched a large-scale electric offensive,
with plans to bring at least 14 new electric 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 offer a practical driving 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
example, offsets the weight of its 230-kilogram (500-pound plus) battery with a
brand-new vehicle architecture based on
aluminum and carbon fiber. ZF’s all-electric innovation prototype is another excellent demonstration of how lightweight
chassis construction methods are enhancing both the range and handling of modern
electric vehicles.
Technology of the future: plug-in hybrid
But at present, it’s plug-in hybrids that appear to have the best market prospects.
Plug-in hybrids are vehicles that not only
combine an internal combustion engine
with an automatic electric powertrain, but
also have batteries that can be recharged
from a standard household power supply.
Thanks to these batteries – which are significantly larger than the ones found in
existing mild and full hybrid vehicles –
they are perfectly capable of making reasonably long journeys at speeds of up to 70
mph (120 km/h) on electric power alone.
The benefits of plug-in hybrids are most
obvious in city traffic, however, because
they allow you to drive for up to 50 kilometers (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
traffic in Germany’s conurbations showed
that nitrogen dioxide levels exceeded the
permissible annual average limits in 2013.
Now countries around the world are introducing more stringent emissions legislation, in the hope of improving the air
quality in cities and built-up areas.
In city traffic,
plug-in hybrids can
drive up to 30 miles
without noise or
exhaust emissions.
But even the most efficient engine technologies and very best exhaust-gas treatment systems can scarcely prevent conventionally powered vehicles from emitting
pollutants. Neither gasoline nor diesel engines are able to run at their most efficient
in city traffic, characterized as it is by fluctuating speeds and frequent stops at traffic
lights. The most obvious and sensible way
to reduce this pollution for city dwellers
would be to introduce quiet, locally emission-free, electrically powered vehicles.
The new hybrids aren’t just attracting
drivers because of the virtuous feelings
associated 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 disguises 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 allelectric driving before the turbocharged
1.4-liter gasoline engine takes over and
extends the driving range to more conventional distances. What’s more, the electric
motor provides some extra “tailwind” when
starting from traffic lights or overtaking
other vehicles – thanks to this electric
boost, the car actually feels as if it has two
extra cylinders under 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 first production hybrid, the Audi duo, back in 1996. But it
didn’t exactly leap off the shelves: back
then, the batteries alone weighed 400 kilograms (nearly 900 pounds) and the price,
at around 60,000 deutschmarks (roughly
42,000 dollars) was far higher than conventional models in the same class. In the
end, it was Toyota’s impressive persistence
that persuaded the market of the dual
drive’s benefits: the Japanese company has
sold more than six million hybrid vehicles
since 1998. The latest version of the bestselling Prius – due in 2015 – will use lithium-ion batteries, which weigh less but
boast significantly 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 technology
It’s a fact that heavy, expensive batteries
have always been the Achilles’ heel of
locally emission-free mobility. The first
batteries only had one thousandth of the
energy density of liquid fuels. Even now,
the practical range of most all-electric
vehicles is less than 150 kilometers (95
miles), and they can only travel such distances 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
capacity. By the end of the decade, practical 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 relatively lightweight city runabouts. Larger
Hybrid facts and figures
In the info bars on the right and on the following
pages, you’ll find milestones in the history of
hybrids, information on sales of plug-in hybrids,
and details of vehicles equipped with ZF’s hybrid
technology:
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1996
Audi duo
The world’s first
production hybrid.
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TECHNOLOGY
High torque from a standing
start: one of the more
seductive features
of electric power units.
2003
(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).
2009
Renault Elect’road
Mercedes-Benz
First production plug-in
Mercedes-Benz was the first automaker to install one
hybrid in the world.
of ZF’s hybrid modules, in the premium S-Class hybrid.
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cars consume more energy, which means
they need much greater battery capacity.
So for medium-sized cars upward, the
most efficient and convenient solution lies
in an ingenious combination of electric
motor with internal combustion engine
(ICE): in plug-in hybrids, carbon-based
fuel is the ideal energy store for longer
distances, supplemented by a zero-emission 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. Engineers compared the performance of various (plug-in) hybrids over a 65-kilometer
(40-mile) route mixing city traffic with
country roads and stretches of freeway.
The results were surprising, even for outand-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 traffic
lights, but also when freewheeling. Using
energy from the heavy-duty traction battery, 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-efficient output
level. What’s more, some of the kinetic energy produced during “boosting” phases
Clean green conscience,
good long range: plug-in
hybrids are proving just
how practical they are.
can be recovered – the more powerful the
battery, the more energy is recovered.
This flexibility – from frugal to feisty – can
be extended even further by using plug-in
hybrids over short distances between recharging points. For example, by recharging the battery after making a typical commuter’s journey of 20 kilometers (12
miles), you can cut total fuel consumption
by 83 percent, because the ICE only fires
up for 16 percent of the 40-mile distance.
Plug-in hybrids are highly efficient allrounders that combine the space and longdistance 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 satnav knows where you’re going, the system
can either make sure the battery has
enough capacity for the final, 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 emissionfree. This superior form of locomotion becomes even more attractive in places –
such as London – where drivers of electric
2009
vehicles are exempt from congestion
charges, or where they are entitled – as in
California – to use lanes reserved exclusively for electric vehicles.
Complying with CO2 limits for fleets
This is no science-fiction fantasy: the plugin hybrid trend is steadily gaining momentum. First, because relatively few drivers
want to sacrifice comfort, range and convenience 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
cities like Beijing and Shanghai, strict limits are being placed on the number of car
registrations: only (part-)electric vehicles
are exempt. And finally, 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 future CO2 emission limits for vehicle fleets.
The fact that the electric boost not only
enhances efficiency but makes driving
more fun is a wholly serendipitous but
very welcome side-effect of this fuel-efficient powertrain concept. ■
2009
Toyota Prius PHV
BMW Active Hybrid 7
First presented at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor
The first production vehicle to use ZF’s 8-speed
Show, the plug-in PHV is based on the third
hybrid transmission, this mild-hybrid model achieves
generation of Toyota’s successful Prius hybrids.
fuel savings of up to 15 percent.
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TECHNOLOGY
TWO HEARTS
BEATING 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.
T
wo hearts beating as one is a
fanciful but popular description 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 exceeding 30 mph (50 km/h). Most of the time,
these hybrid vehicles are powered by their
internal combustion engines. The correspondingly small battery is only recharged
while the car is driving – usually by recovering kinetic energy during braking maneuvers, a process known as “recuperation” or “regeneration”.
A plug improves performance
That’s all due to change in the near future:
future hybrid models will rely on more
powerful batteries that can also be recharged from external power sockets –
while parked in the garage at home, for example, or at a public recharging station. ZF
is supplementing this plug-in hybrid tech-
nology with a hybrid powertrain that enables 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 fires up at higher
speeds. The presence of an internal combustion engine also solves the range problem that still afflicts all-electric vehicles. If
you suddenly want or need to travel several
hundred miles, you can do so in your plugin hybrid without having to stop at recharging 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 offering since 2008. “In principle, the
architecture is similar to our previous fullhybrid systems,” explains Dr. Ralf Kubalczyk, head of Hybrid Transmission Development at ZF, and also in charge of integrating
the all-in-one system. “But we’ve introduced
so many innovations and new developments that we’re now offering automakers
2011
2012
Audi Q5 hybrid quattro
Mitsubishi Outlander P-HEV
The first production car to use the full-hybrid version of ZF’s
Presented at the 2012 Paris Motor
8-speed automatic transmission, which enables pure electric
Show, this was the first 4WD SUV to
driving without changing the basic transmission concept.
be offered as a plug-in hybrid.
17
EN_17_ZF_Drive_01_2014 17
02.06.14 12:06
Range, handling and dynamics
Electrically powered travel – quick, comfortable,
and with no “range anxiety”: ZF’s all-in-one
plug-in hybrid system makes it all possible.
Integrated
starter element
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.
Decoupling
torsional vibration
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.
18
EN_18_ZF_Drive_01_2014 18
1.2014
02.06.14 11:24
TECHNOLOGY
Integral
electric pump
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.
Illustration: Sascha Bierl
Powerful
electric motor
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).
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02.06.14 11:24
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 system
The more powerful electric motor plays an
important role in this new setup. ZF will
soon start to produce 90 kW electric motors 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 different concepts: first, on a hybrid module
that can be incorporated into ZF’s own
transmission systems. In this case, the
electric motor, separating clutch and torsion damper have all been redesigned for
the system – and installed in the transmission’s clutch bell housing, where they can
be kept cool by the oil mist. The separating
clutch, which disengages the electric
motor from the internal combustion
engine, 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 transmissions
But the team is also developing modules
for other transmissions, so that automakers’ 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 capable of engaging the gasoline or diesel engine in a record time of just 150 milliseconds – so fast, in fact, that the vehicle’s
occupants don’t notice it.
2014
Both variants use powerful torsion dampers to decouple any torsional vibration in
the powertrain. Such vibrations are particularly intense in powertrains driven by
modern, downsized, turbocharged engines
with fewer cylinders. The resultant humming and buzzing can severely affect the
comfort of vehicle occupants, as well as
impacting on the drivetrain’s service life.
The torsion dampers in ZF’s hybrid modules effectively attenuate these vibrations
until they disappear.
Integrated starter element
A few things have changed in the transmission itself, which is based on ZF’s successful 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 gearshifts are just as comfortable as they would
be with a torque converter present. An external cooling system makes sure the integrated starter element stays cool.
The trend toward electrification is also
evident in the hybrid system’s innards, in
the form of an electric oil pump which
keeps the oil circuit under pressure following 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 efficiency, and is also
suitable for use in the next generation of
conventional automatic transmissions.
Power electronics
The third key component is the power
electronics, which play a vital role in the
plug-in hybrid system’s energy manage-
2014
Volkswagen Jetta Hybrid
Porsche 918 Spyder
Featuring ZF’s hybrid module.
Combines a V-8 internal combustion engine with
two electric motors on front and rear axles.
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02.06.14 11:24
TECHNOLOGIE
TECHNOLOGY
ZF’s Schweinfurt plant
started producing
DynaStart modules
capable of producing
12 kW back in 2008.
Our app for iPad
and iPhone has
more on this topic:
www.zf.com/drive-app
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 fluctuations that drivers would
otherwise experience as unexpected and
uncomfortable power fluctuations when
accelerating. A built-in DC/DC inverter
provides electric power for the car’s onboard network, including the infotainment
system, aircon and lighting.
As Kubalczyk explains, “Much of our
expertise lies in integrating system functions and energy management.” Here,
software is the key. In a hybrid system, the
two power sources and many hybrid functions associated, for example, with restarting the engine, energy recuperation and
20
Z -123Z Z -123
X Y Z X Y XY
ZZ -123
Modular hybrid toolkit
Not only does ZF offer customers an all-inone, single-sourced system. All the different components in ZF’s modular hybrid
toolkit are also available separately, meaning that carmakers can choose to order
just the electric motor, or the hybrid module consisting of electric motor, separating
clutch and torsion damper. Other customers 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 flexibly,” 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 consumption and CO2 emissions of hybrid vehicles. For manufacturers, the really important 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 first
part of the ECE test cycle in all-electric
mode. “The test shows that fuel savings
compared to conventional automatic transmission systems can be as much as 70 percent,” smiles Kubalczyk. In short, plug-in
hybrids are making an important contribution toward enabling vehicle manufacturers to comply with the rigorous new CO2
emission standards. ■
11
20
12
20
13
Photo: Dominik Gigler
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 fluidly in mere fractions of a second. Compared to building a
conventional transmission system such as
the 8HP or 9HP, integrating all these functions 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 system in Friedrichshafen, Schweinfurt and
Auerbach are working directly on the integration of the all-in-one system.
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
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Modern agricultural
machinery takes the
strain out of working
in the fields.
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02.06.14 11:26
CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY
THE HI-TECH
WAY TO FARM
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
offers the best hope for the future.
By Birk Grüling
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02.06.14 11:26
Technology meets
rural idyll: a farmer
controls his smart
farm using iPads and
onboard computers.
T
he big tractor stops on the
edge of the plowed field while
the farmer types final instructions into the onboard computer. 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 program. For the next few hours, he’ll leave
most of the work to the tractor’s onboard
systems. Using laser scanners and GPS,
the tractor will find its way around the
field almost unassisted. The farmer can
concentrate entirely on the sowing process, without having to worry about clutch
or gearshifts. What once sounded futuristic is rapidly becoming routine.
“Modern farmers sit in the cockpits of
their farm machines and monitor the progress of farming operations from their onboard computers; they hardly even have to
steer,” explains Professor Stefan Böttinger
from the Institute of Agricultural Engineering at the University of Hohenheim.
Liberated from monotonous work in shifts
lasting 12-14 hours, farmers can now concentrate on optimizing the workflow. Just
like modern cars, the onboard computers
in farmers’ tractors display important information on speed, fuel consumption and
the status of the sowing operation. Onboard computers can also control agricultural implements attached to the tractor,
24
EN_24_ZF_Drive_01_2014 24
ZF technology in agriculture
ZF engineers built the company’s first
tractor transmission back in 1937; today,
almost all of the major manufacturers of
agricultural machinery rely on ZF’s continuously variable transmissions (CVTs).
Over the decades, these systems have
made huge strides in terms of sophistication 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.
1.2014
02.06.14 11:26
CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY
such as plows or planters. Previously, each
piece of machinery had its own set of controls. After a long day in the fields, tractors
often resembled nothing so much as the
inside of a very messy workshop.
Linking together applications
Nowadays, many modern agricultural implements are partially autonomous. Take
baling, for example. Not so long ago, farmers would have to drive over the meadow,
stop each time the baler finished pressing
or rolling a bale, and unload it by hand before 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 machinery is enabling farmers to
work more efficiently and more economically,” says Hermann Beck, head of ZF’s
Off-Highway Systems business unit.
One important prerequisite for agricultural innovation is the seamless interconnection of the individual applications to
form a single smart, streamlined, all-in-one
system. Modern agricultural machines
have two different interfaces for enabling
the individual subsystems to talk to each
other. The first interface, known as the
CAN bus system, is primarily used to control internal systems such as engine and
transmission: the system automatically applies optimum engine-speed settings and
appropriate gearing. In normal, day-to-day
operation, the driver very rarely interacts
with this system.
Controlling planters directly
By contrast, the second system (ISOBUS)
works closely with farmers, enabling
them to control, for example, plowing or
sowing implements directly from their onboard computers. But smart communication 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 flock
of smaller, (semi-)autonomous, unmanned
vehicles. “Imagine a combine harvester,
for example, using laser sensors to control
a self-propelled trailer driving along
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.
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.
By
2030
around 40 percent
of the corn acreage
in sub-Saharan
Africa will have
disappeared
due to drought.
behind it. The harvester steadily loads up
the trailer and then, once it’s full, automatically calls for a replacement. Meanwhile the first trailer makes its way back
to base,” enthuses Beck.
Another major theme preoccupying
agricultural visionaries is “precision farming”. Typically, this vision of the future involves agricultural machines that not only
know precisely where they are in the field,
but also how much seed and fertilizer they
need to distribute in each part of the field.
Gauging exactly how much fertilizer to apply has always been one of farming’s most
problematic challenges. Fertilizer in the
soil is mobile: it’s difficult to tell whether
crops are receiving enough nitrates, or
whether the nitrogen is making its way
straight into the groundwater. Now
researchers at the University of Bremen
have come up with a possible solution. The
soil in the field is analyzed using a small
chemical laboratory. This involves dissolving a teaspoon of soil in water and filtering
it. In just a few minutes, electrical analysis
of the chemical constituents tells the
farmer the ideal amount of fertilizer to
apply. In the medium term, the test will be
automated. “Turning ideas like this into reality makes sense, in terms of both cost
efficiency and environmental protection,”
says agricultural engineer Böttinger. Fertilizer represents a major expense for farmers, while high concentrations can seriously 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 exploding. “Already, farmers in Germany and
France are harvesting four or five times as
much wheat from their fields 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 efficiency is immensely important 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
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and iPhone has
more on this topic:
www.zf.com/drive-app
sustainability issues. He writes for Die Zeit, the
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Tagesspiegel,
as well as other publications.
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ON THE
ROAD AGAIN
A ZF study into the future of long-distance truck
driving is investigating drivers’ living and working
conditions. A new edition is currently being prepared.
By Andreas Techel
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02.06.14 11:32
MOBILITY
W
hat’s happening to the working
conditions of long-distance
truck drivers? Are new working models emerging that will make the
profession more attractive to a wider audience? 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 questions, and will appear in time for the IAA
Commercial Vehicles trade fair in the fall.
In 2012, a publication entitled “ZF
Future Study on Truck Drivers” appeared.
It was a first attempt to provide researchbased insights into the lives of truck drivers and their importance to the logistics
industry. Professor Dr. Dirk Lohre at Heilbronn University was in charge of the
study, which was commissioned by ZF and
German trade magazine FERNFAHRER.
Dramatic shortage of drivers
The 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 replacements required are being trained or retrained to enter the industry. These are
alarming figures in view of the steadily
growing demand for road freight transportation. The 2012 study was widely covered
by the media, because problems in the
logistics sector have a significant 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
scenarios in an attempt to predict how conditions 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
actions – when dealing with cabotage regulations within the EU, for example. Cabotage 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-makers
Wage gaps within the EU mean that certain
limits have been placed on cabotage arrangements. Reactions to this policy differ
widely: many German carriers fear that
prices will deteriorate further and want
even more protection, whereas many logistics companies would like to see all such
regulatory constraints removed completely.
Given such conflicts of interest, the new
study should be a valuable source of indicators for stakeholders and policymakers. ■
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 organization is the largest training provider in the
transport industry. For the study, the team
conducted expert interviews with freight
carriers and logistics firms, as well as representatives of associations, trade and specialist media and political organizations. They
also carried out a survey of truck drivers. By
the summer, regular meetings will be taking
place with leading figures in the industry,
as part of the ZF-Speditionslounge series.
The study will be presented to policymakers
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 find out more about how the study is being
produced, visit www.zf-zukunftsstudie.de
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.
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.
27
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02.06.14 11:32
BRAZIL
ALWAYS
ON THE GO
Report by Jörg Heuer
Photos by Dominik Gigler
As the Soccer World Cup approaches, all eyes are turned to Brazil. ZF is
especially 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.
With 11 million residents, the city
of São Paulo is the country’s financial
and commercial hub.
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02.06.14 11:32
GLOBALIZATION
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02.06.14 11:33
Betim
Araraquara
SÃO PAULO
RIO DE JANEIRO
Sorocaba
São Bernardo do Campo
Host nation
Brazil
1
2014
Brazil hosts the World
Cup for the second
time (the first was in
1950).
Brazil has won
the most
world titles
5
(1958, 1962, 1970,
1994, 2002).
The country is
investing the
equivalent of
2
27
billion
dollars
in the
Soccer World Cup
and
18
billion
dollars
in the 2016
Olympic Games.
3
30
EN_30_ZF_Drive_01_2014 30
4
1.2014
04.06.14 18:30
GLOBALIZATION
Photo: ZF
T
1 Sophisticated São Paulo, with
skyscrapers and glass facades
2 New landmark: the 138-meter-tall
Ponte Estaiada Octávio Frias de
Oliveira suspension bridge
3 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.
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, residential 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
traffic only flows 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 official capacity of 200 passengers.
In reality, it carries a lot more. 170 of these
low-floor monsters wind their way through
the streets of São Paulo; ZF supplies the
giant vehicle’s transmission and certain
chassis components. However, the longplanned BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) system,
which would allow city buses to travel unimpeded 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 terminal is under construction. There’s no way
it will be fully operational by the time the
World Cup starts. The Arena Corinthians
in the city’s Itaquera district is also in the
final stages of construction; the 65,000seat stadium will host the World Cup opening game between Brazil and Croatia on
June 12, as well as three other group
matches, one second-round game and a
semi-final. 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”
investing 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 rebuilding
As the helicopter flies over the metropolis,
our drive photographer’s camera never
stops clicking. The sun flashes from modern glass facades. More skyscrapers than
anywhere else in the world – with the exception of New York – feature rooftop helipads. 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 succeeded in reducing poverty across large
segments of the country’s 200-million population: 50 million people have been lifted
out of poverty and extreme poverty to join
the middle classes. The Brazilian population is classified alphabetically, from A
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EN_31_ZF_Drive_01_2014 31
02.06.14 11:33
3
(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 reals). While 27.4 percent of the population
was still classified as E in 2003, the figure
has now shrunk to around ten percent.
Photo: German Consulate General in São Paulo
Brazil’s business hub
With 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 financial and industrial center. 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
Felipe Massa. It’s the sixth largest metropolitan area in the world. No international
company interested in building a presence
in South America can afford 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 metropolitan 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 official residence. “It’s
difficult to overstate the significance 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%
GDP
At around
2260
bn dollars
Brazil’s Gross
Domestic Product
(2012) makes it
the seventh
largest economy
in the world.
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 first
production facility outside Germany.
Nowadays, all four of the company’s
main divisions operate here: Car Powertrain Technology, Car Chassis Technology,
Commercial Vehicle Technology and Industrial 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 significance of the São Paulo region not just for
Brazil, but for South America as a whole,
it’s easy to understand why ZF’s production facilities are located in nearby Sorocaba, São Bernardo do Campo and Araraquara, with another plant a little further
away in Betim. ZF’s 4,300 or so employees
in Brazil produce transmissions for commercial vehicles, axles and transmissions
for agricultural machinery, marine transmissions, and clutches, chassis components and steering systems for cars, trucks
and commercial vehicles. Playing in this
part of Brazil is like a home game for ZF.
Special training programs
ZF is a popular employer in the country –
and not just for young engineers. The company 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
1
2
32
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02.06.14 11:33
GLOBALIZATION
“It’s difficult to overstate the
significance of São Paulo for
the German economy.”
FRIEDRICH DÄUBLE,
GERMANY’S CONSUL GENERAL IN SÃO PAULO
4
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.
33
EN_33_ZF_Drive_01_2014 33
02.06.14 11:33
2
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.
1
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
soccer team: São Paulo FC. The multiple
Brazilian champions and Club World Cup
winners have also brought forth such national heroes as Kaká, Raí and Cafu.
While Genivaldo enjoys watching
soccer games, he plays soccer, too. Did we
say, “plays”? He lives and breathes soccer
– and doesn’t mind showing us a few
tricks, first bouncing the leather ball on his
forehead, then juggling it alternately between 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 soccer 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.
34
EN_34_ZF_Drive_01_2014 34
With an area of
3,287,612
square miles
Brazil is only
slightly smaller than
the U.S.
There can only be one World Champion
Of course things are a little different now.
Genivaldo plays as goalkeeper for the ZF
works team in Sorocaba, and ZF supplies
the balls, soccer shoes, jerseys and a wellmaintained 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 million 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
Brazilian 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 decision 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
1.2014
02.06.14 11:33
GLOBALIZATION
INTERVIEW
“Market leaders in
so many segments”
Even though the Football World
Cup hasn’t boosted the economy
as much as expected, Wilson Bricio,
President of ZF South America,
is very satisfied with the way
business has developed.
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
opportunities for growth?
Yes, in automation for commercial vehicles, but also in greater fuel efficiency and
improved safety for cars; those are areas
where we see definite potential.
Applications tailored specifically to local
needs are especially important. We also
see major growth opportunities in wind
power and marine technologies.
“German
discipline and
Brazilian
creativity –
that’s what will
take us
forward.”
Has the World Cup significantly boosted
ZF’s business in Brazil?
To some extent, but not as much as we
were expecting. The anticipated largescale 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.
WILSON BRICIO,
PRESIDENT OF
ZF SOUTH AMERICA
3
EN_35_ZF_Drive_01_2014 35
35
02.06.14 11:33
1
2
workers to down tools whenever the Brazilian national team’s games are shown on
TV. He’s counting the days until the opening game. His tip for the World Cup final?
The goalkeeper’s gentle smile is belied by
his flashing 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,” admits Wilson Bricio (see interview on page
35), who has been President of ZF South
America since 2005. “I’m sure our customers 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.
36
EN_36_ZF_Drive_01_2014 36
3
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.
1.2014
02.06.14 11:33
GLOBALIZATION
Then he smiles and adds: “German innovation and discipline, combined with Brazilian 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 manufacturers. “For MAN, Brazil is the most important 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 explain that 85 percent of the company’s
“Brazil is a
resource-rich,
rapidly emerging
nation that is very
important to ZF.”
1958
is when ZF set
up the company’s
first international
production plant in
São Caetano do
Sul in the state of
São Paulo.
4300
employees
currently work
at the four ZF
sites in Brazil.
ROLF LUTZ,
MEMBER OF THE BOARD RESPONSIBLE
FOR THE SOUTH AMERICA REGION
4
Early days for football euphoria
From 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 flags
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 flash as soon as the
first teams travel to Brazil and move into
their accommodation,” proclaims snack
bar owner Toni Dedè confidently. “Then
there’ll be nothing but football coverage
and round-the-clock celebrations.”
Inspecting diaphragm springs
During 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
specifications. She inspects them with a
trained eye, occasionally glancing at digital readouts on her computer screen. “After
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.” ■
sales are generated in Brazil, the remaining 15 percent in the other Latin American
countries. “Roughly every third truck driving 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.
“Brazil is a resource-rich, emerging economy, where ZF is currently having to deal
with strong wage growth and rising commodity prices,” is how Rolf Lutz, ZF Board
member responsible for South America,
recently summarized the situation.
Fourth largest automotive market
Despite all the ups and downs and the
ever-present challenges, the decision to establish 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 International Monetary Fund predict that by 2015,
Brazil will overtake France in fifth and
Great Britain in sixth place.
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 economic growth reached a record high of 7.5
percent, levelling off at 2.5 percent in 2013
(with a rate of inflation of around six percent). An impressive achievement in
which ZF, as both employer and business
powerhouse, has played a part.
Author Jörg Heuer used to work as a reporter for
legendary Tempo magazine. Now he freelances for
Our app for iPad
and iPhone has
more on this topic:
www.zf.com/drive-app
print magazines like National Geographic, Stern and
ZEITmagazin, for daily papers such as Die Welt and
The Guardian, and as a TV journalist.
37
EN_37_ZF_Drive_01_2014 37
02.06.14 11:33
ON TOUR
Germany’s bus market is booming! Since early 2013, more
and more passengers have been using the services offered
by a steadily growing number of operators and are choosing
to travel by intercity bus. drive decided to join them.
Text: Freddy Boom
Photos: Eva Häberle
38
EN_38_ZF_Drive_01_2014 38
1.2014
02.06.14 11:37
MOBILITY
39
EN_39_ZF_Drive_01_2014 39
02.06.14 11:37
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 little traffic. A few
commuters, a couple of tractors. The journey takes us
past villages with names like Sülze (“Aspic” in English), Didderse and Wipshausen. Homemade signs
along the roadside advertise “Lovely potatoes – fresh
from the farm!”, “Firewood, going cheap” and “Tanya’s tasty takeouts”. In the brown fields, 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 booming
This 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
– official 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 MeinFernbus. Some of them are traveling as far as the foothills
of the Alps, a trip lasting more than 12.5 hours.
Others are disembarking in Braunschweig, Magdeburg 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 Germany’s long-haul bus market on January 1, 2013,
business has been booming. By the end of the year,
around 40 long-distance bus operators were offering
more than 5,000 scheduled trips within Germany
each week, according to a survey carried out by the
IGES Institute in Berlin on behalf of the Federal
Association 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 figure 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 Berlinbased 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 journeys are usually much cheaper than comparable trips
by train, they do last longer. It takes bus passengers
40
EN_40_ZF_Drive_01_2014 40
12.5 hours on average to travel from Hamburg to
Munich; by train it takes around six hours.
40
bus firms
are fighting for
German customers
in this new
travel segment.
Market leader
among German
intercity bus
operators is
currently Berlinbased firm
MeinFernbus, with
39.7
percent
of the scheduled
road miles.
Direct connections to smaller destinations
But intercity buses do excel at one thing: they can
drive directly to smaller destinations that are only
accessible 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 market; firms 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 Hamburg, price and comfort were key factors in deciding
to make his first 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 find yourself chatting to people.” Then he opens his laptop and
starts doing some Internet research for a term paper.
Pioneers from Friedrichshafen
One of the first 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
service” – 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
fixed bus routes at that time. Today, the bus operator runs
services between 30 cities in Germany.
1.2014
02.06.14 12:11
MOBILITY
Saying goodbye in
Hamburg... the
southbound bus
makes an early start.
Most of the passengers 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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EN_41_ZF_Drive_01_2014 41
02.06.14 11:37
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; first-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 traffic 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 longdistance 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 passengers with their luggage, and pensioner Reinhardt Kohlrusch (right) is
visiting his grandchildren in Bavaria.
“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 himself very comfortable. A friend drove him to Hamburg,
and now he’s taking the bus all the way to the central
bus station in Munich. 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 finishing his second breakfast – 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
42
EN_42_ZF_Drive_01_2014 42
bus travel: “There’s no stress this way”. It might be a
“little quicker” by car, or indeed by train, but the legroom in the bus is unbeatable. His son booked the
ticket for him on the Web. Now he can sit and daydream in peace, taking an occasional nap and watching 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
1.2014
02.06.14 11:37
MOBILITY
8000
scheduled
trips a week
are currently
offered by
Germany’s
intercity bus
operators.
in particular” who view intercity buses as a “comfortable 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 passengers 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 connections, this target audience is discovering a new
kind of freedom. “Another passenger segment comes
from carpooling or car-sharing environments, or previously traveled by car or train,” adds Gipp.
Applause for the driver
The green bus has left the A7 freeway near Soltau-Süd
and is now rolling down country roads toward Celle,
the first stop of the morning. The highway runs rulerstraight down an avenue of alders and beeches. The
morning mist rises from the fields, windmills turn
sedately 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 transmission system. Ali Aydin steers the bus, which can carry
nearly 60 passengers, into the bus station in Braunschweig, 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. ■
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02.06.14 11:37
The “fabrics” out of which
composite materials are made:
fiberglass (in the background)
and carbon-fiber mats.
44
EN_44_ZF_Drive_01_2014 44
1.2014
02.06.14 11:38
TECHNOLOGY
THE ART OF
LIGHTWEIGHT
DESIGN
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
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.
45
EN_45_ZF_Drive_01_2014 45
04.06.14 17:58
Nathalie Wieber, Mathias Schramm and
Alexander Hamacher (from left)
all work in the ZF Composites Tech Center.
T
he press slowly opens –
somewhat like a theater curtain angled at 90 degrees – to
reveal a wheel mount made
out of carbon fiber-reinforced
plastic. The exceptionally durable component 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
fiber – 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 developing lightweight products made out
of fiber-reinforced plastics (FRP) for a
variety of structural components. Two
types of composite materials are used:
carbon fiber-reinforced plastics (CFRP)
and glass fiber-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
46
EN_46_ZF_Drive_01_2014 46
less than more conventional designs. To
make sure such weight-saving solutions
are put into series production as quickly
and cost-efficiently as possible, ZF has
invested 3.1 million euros (about 4.2 million dollars) in the Composites Tech Center, 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
associated with clean-room laboratories.
“We provide the production technology expertise required to design and
build functioning, pre-production prototypes – but we’re not a production facility,” 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 fiber-reinforced
plastics, we help the ZF divisions with
their development work from a very early
stage.” Dr. Michael Heselhaus, the man responsible for developing the Composites
Tech Center, goes on to explain. “Compared to steel or aluminum, there are so
many more variables to consider when
you’re working with FRP. In other words,
each component makes different demands
on the material and how you work with it.”
Developing prototypes in-house
Other specifications include target production costs, planned quantities and required cycle times for series production.
“We work with the product development
teams to draw up detailed specifications
covering all requirements, so we can
make sure that when the FRP products go
into series production, the whole process
is as efficient and cost-effective as possible. This means, for example, adjusting
product designs to achieve optimized cycle times while calculating the costs
involved,” adds Heselhaus. Another advantage of the Composites Tech Center
for ZF’s development network: the technology company is now able to produce
FRP prototypes in-house, without resorting to external partners. The development departments in the various ZF divisions very much appreciate this facility.
1.2014
02.06.14 12:13
TECHNOLOGY
Prototype of a combined suspension strutwheel mount for cars, made out of
carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP).
The main tool in the ZF Composites
Tech Center: a Dieffenbacher
DCL 1000-ton press.
47
EN_47_ZF_Drive_01_2014 47
02.06.14 11:38
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).
Two processes for two plastics
ZF works with different lightweight materials and technologies.
Thermoset composites cannot be
reshaped once they have been processed – in contrast to thermoplastic
composites. Used as fiber-reinforced
plastics (FRP) in combination with long
or continuous fibers, thermoset composites are very strong and thermally
stable – two attractive characteristics
in heavy-duty automotive applications.
Typically, the plastic composites are
reinforced with fiberglass (glass fiberreinforced plastics, or GRP) or carbon
fibers (carbon fiber-reinforced plastics,
or CFRP).
The RTM process (Resin Transfer
Molding) is easy to automate and
benefits from short cycle times. In the
ZF Composites Tech Center, a robot
places the preformed layers of fiber
matting into a prepared mold which
48
EN_48_ZF_Drive_01_2014 48
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 mixture 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 processing stage, the prepared preforms are
placed in the mold, then subjected to a
predefined pressure profile at specific
mold temperatures, causing the
resin and hardener to react so the
component is fully hardened (cured).
1.2014
04.06.14 17:58
TECHNOLOGY
Dr. Ignacio
Lobo-Casanova
(left) with
Dr. Michael
Heselhaus.
“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
Making the most of every fiber
In practical terms, collaboration between
the ZF divisions and the Composites Tech
Center – which is managed by the Corporate Production unit in Friedrichshafen –
happens like this: once the general parameters and concept for an FRP component
have been specified, the product engineers turn to the Composites Tech Center
for advice and support. The first step is to
produce material samples, which at this
stage bear no resemblance to the finished
product. They are tested for conformability, toughness and temperature resistance,
along with a host of other properties.
Virtual testing
The 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 different load spectra, and how its
geometry could be optimized where neces-
sary. The tools are even capable 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 prototypes. In the case of the wheel mount, a
number of shaped layers are cut out of the
fiber mats, and a robot then drapes them
– paying meticulous attention to the orientation of the fibers – 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
using the RTM process (see box on left), it
must prove itself in real-world vehicle
tests. For testing the suspension strutwheel mount module, ZF uses a very exclusive car: the company’s all-electric
innovation prototype.
Adding value instead of cost
“Emissions legislation is the main factor
driving lightweight design in the automotive industry,” explains Lobo-Casanova,
“because it will be very difficult 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 thermoset FRP materials (see box on left). ZF
is also testing thermoplastic FRP composites (such as organic sheet), as well as
lighter metals.
Before ZF will even consider building
structural components out of FRP, or
approve the production of prototypes by
the Schweinfurt Composites 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
offset a large proportion of the additional
cost that’s still associated with using FRP
as a source material and with the complex processing involved,” explains LoboCasanova. ■
49
EN_49_ZF_Drive_01_2014 49
02.06.14 12:13
SMART
DAMPING
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.
Damping force “as needed”
There is a solution, however: an adaptive
damping system such as CDC (Continuous
Damping Control). The damping properties of conventional shock absorbers are
set at the factory and can’t be changed. But
in ZF’s CDC system, electronically controlled dampers on all four wheels adjust
the hardness of the suspension to suit current driving conditions in real time. A central control unit (ECU) analyzes a steady
stream of information from dozens of sensors in the vehicle, does the calculations,
and issues the necessary instructions. The
technology is already well-established in
many classes of vehicles – but so far, hasn’t
been cost-efficient 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 fitted to
just one axle – the rear one, which has the
greatest influence on the car’s driving behavior because rear-axle loading varies so
much. The technical concept behind single-axle CDC is the same as CDC for four
wheels: a proportional valve constantly
regulates the flow of oil into and out of the
damper. The faster oil flows through the
In February 2014, the Honda
Civic Tourer became the
first car to offer CDC 1XL
as an option.
Photo: Honda
C
ompact and subcompact cars and
vans dominate town and country
roads around the world, whisking commuters through rush-hour traffic,
ferrying shoppers to supermarkets, and
sometimes even heading off on vacation,
crammed full of people and luggage.
Engineers have devised all kinds of i ngenious ways to make these vehicles
more spacious. But they haven’t managed
to solve one important question that
a ffects both comfort and safety: just what
is the ideal damping force? For safety
reasons, damper settings are usually optimized for full loads – the worst-case scenario. 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 pleasure out of driving.
1.2014
EN_50_ZF_Drive_01_2014 50
04.06.14 17:57
TECHNOLOGY
valve, the softer the suspension. To harden
the suspension, the valve constricts the
flow, so the piston in the damper can’t displace 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 capable of collecting key data – on road conditions 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 noticing. 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, however, you’ll most enjoy a car fitted 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 find yourself just rolling (very comfortably) along. ■
Heart of the system
An electromagnetic proportional valve reduces or
increases oil flow within the CDC damper in just fractions
of a second, instantly reducing or increasing the hardness of the suspension. The mechanism is controlled
by sophisticated electronic hardware and software – all
designed and built by ZF.
51
EN_51_ZF_Drive_01_2014 51
04.06.14 17:57
ROOMS ON
WHEELS
Anyone trying to predict the future of the automobile
needs to imagine something a little more
sophisticated than smartphones on wheels.
Till Grusche argues that voice and gesture recognition
will be a key feature in the cars of tomorrow.
A
t first, cars were synonymous 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 generation”. 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” generation, a profound transformation is taking
place. Cars are turning into consumer
items. The smartphone has replaced the
driving license as a means of gaining independence 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 economy” reflects a new culture of sharing and
environmental awareness.
52
EN_52_ZF_Drive_01_2014 52
Mobile paradigm shift
This shift in attitudes is largely driven by
the digital economy. With her companies
Zipcar and Buzzcar, American entrepreneur Robin Chase created the blueprint for
modern car-sharing services. For over ten
years, German company carpooling has
used their web portal mitfahrgelegenheit.
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
already working on the next major paradigm shift with its driverless cars, prototypes of which can frequently be observed
on test drives up and down Silicon Valley.
Heads of carmaking
companies long ago
realized that sooner
or later, part of their
business will depend
on alternative
mobility solutions.
But what about the automotive industry? Heads of carmaking companies long
ago realized that sooner or later, at least
part of their business will depend on alternative mobility solutions. BMW, for example, 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, carpooling. At the same time, automakers and
their suppliers are all frantically working
to incorporate new communication technologies into their vehicles that will ultimately make cars more intelligent and
more networked – in a word, smart.
Making technology relevant
This is changing the whole driving experience, albeit along familiar lines. That’s because most manufacturers are fixated on a
“personal computing” paradigm, attempting to integrate the user experience (UX)
familiar to many people from their smartphones – text messaging, navigation, entertainment – into the dashboard instrumentation 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 accessible
and relevant to users?
1.2014
02.06.14 11:46
ESSAY
Author Till Grusche
qualified in engineering
and economics, and
now works as head
of marketing at
carpooling.com,
Europe’s largest
car-sharing network
with six million users.
Using technology collaboratively
As 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
interact and share information using advanced 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 responsible driver, he doesn’t attempt to use his
own mobile to find 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 “personal computing” paradigm – in this case,
experienced by four people in parallel.
Cooperative interface
But 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 energy 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 incar systems would feed them relevant information 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 interfacing with in-vehicle computer technology. As it stands, the car of today is a physical interface, into which automakers are
Your driving license
will become an
authentication tool,
giving you access to
an entire Smart Car
ecosystem – however
that may work.
now incorporating additional physical interfaces such as touchscreens. But this is
only a tentative first step: in the future,
new modes of input – especially voice recognition 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-controlled prototype RoomE, developed by design company frog, which uses the whole
room as a user interface. Once designers
start to think about how useful and conve-
nient smart rooms on wheels could be,
their imaginations start to soar. The controlled environment inside a vehicle
would provide better conditions for using
audiovisual media than most living rooms
or offices, for example. Thought experiments have already suggested all kinds of
applications – from shared entertainment
experiences through to interactive office
meetings in driverless vehicles. Ultimately, none of them have very much to
do with the traditional driving experience
– these are collective, interactive experiences based on sophisticated computer
technology that just happen to take place
inside a car.
Goal: the Smart Car ecosystem
Of course such gigantic steps in automotive 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 indication of driving ability as a kind of
authentication 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 relevance to the social environment in which
the (great) grandchildren of today’s “Generation 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 successful 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
until the system came into existence. ■
53
EN_53_ZF_Drive_01_2014 53
02.06.14 11:46
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 attractive. But the gap between purely symbolic
policies and genuine cultural change can be hard to bridge.
Text: Friederike Beyer
54
EN_54_ZF_Drive_01_2014 54
1.2014
02.06.14 16:15
WORKING ENVIRONMENT
Young Sunwoo feels at
home in many different
places. For this 33-yearold German with Korean
roots, changing cultural
perspective is just
something you do as
a matter of course.
T Photo: Felix Kästle
hat the human brain is a marvelous machine is something
everybody knows nowadays –
even companies are starting
to get the message. Young
Sunwoo’s brain is an especially miraculous
piece of machinery. This ZF employee can
think about multiple things at the same
time, his speech center switches effortlessly between multiple languages, his
body language adapts instantly to whichever cultural milieu he happens to be in.
He can apply Asian and German perspectives simultaneously – 360-degree cultural
awareness, all the time, everywhere.
In fact, aside from his degree in Business Administration, Sunwoo has that
special something that is increasingly
regarded as the key to tomorrow’s entrepreneurial success. He is a citizen of the
world. Thanks to his background and upbringing, the 33-year-old manager appears
to maneuver effortlessly through the complexities 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. Following an internship with BMW, Sunwoo
came to ZF in 2006 via the international
trainee program. He then worked in
Controlling, did a stint in Business Development, and from 2011, was Commercial
Manager of ZF’s Mexican operation in
Saltillo. Now he’s living back on Lake Constance and working in the Mergers &
Acquisitions and joint ventures unit.
55
EN_55_ZF_Drive_01_2014 55
04.06.14 17:56
“I can dodge cultural pitfalls relatively easily, 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 important as an overseas market. But how
can companies position themselves most
effectively in this rapidly changing world?
There’s plenty to do:
Diversity Officer Silke Wolf in
conversation with delegates
at ZF’s first Global Women
Leadership Summit.
Competitive advantage: diversity
Nowadays, diversity is increasingly seen as
a competitive advantage. “Many companies make systematic use of their employees’ diversity in order to achieve their
goals more effectively,” asserts Professor
Dr. Meike Tilebein, Director of the Institute 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 multicultural backgrounds for global product development, the outcome is generally positive. “Sustainable success in international
markets often depends on how close the
senior management team is to the overall
cultural profile 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 identified a recruitment advantage. In the global battle for the top talent
and best brains, many companies are trying to reposition themselves as more open,
heterogeneous and permeable.
Balancing out the genders
These are also important goals for Silke
Wolf, who is responsible for all diversityrelated issues at ZF. “We now know that
mixed teams are more innovative and produce better results than groups with a
homogeneous
employee
structure,”
explains Wolf. Future workforce development will be defined and guided by four
key priorities: Gender Balance, All Ages,
Different 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 comprehensive cultural transformation – from the
top down,” confirms 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 effectively.”
56
EN_56_ZF_Drive_01_2014 56
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
bonus payments to senior managers. Following a 12 percent increase in 2013,
Daimler is currently right on schedule.
Just a few years ago, only HR departments got excited about diversity. Now it’s
starting to interest other specialist departments as well. As a result, more and more
companies are systematically reviewing
all their business activities in terms of
diversity. According to consulting firm
Synergy Consult, based in Cologne, as
many as one third of the DAX 30 companies are using specific indicators to track
their diversity management activities.
“As an employer,
ZF must be as
attractive to as
many different
people as
possible.”
JÜRGEN HOLEKSA
Global Women Summit
Jürgen 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 first 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 identified 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 mentoring, job rotation and
more flexible working-time models.
1.2014
04.06.14 17:56
WORKING ENVIRONMENT
Our app for iPad
and iPhone has
more on this topic:
www.zf.com/drive-app
Photos: Sabine Kunzer (3), Felix Kästle, Bernhard Huber (1)
The women leaders put
together a collage of
iconic images for the
Summit. But most of
the time was spent
discussing and defining
the most important
diversity issues at ZF.
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 profiles
and variety of cultures,” says the manager.
“But in numerical terms, we could certainly do more to improve our gender balance.” China is already ahead of the rest of
the world in this respect, confirms Xueying Jiang, manager of ZF’s Global Commodities Purchasing unit in Shanghai.
“Whether you’re male or female makes no
difference 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 office
and on the road are no longer appropriate
metrics for career positions.
Intercultural training
Where 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
exactly 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 definitions. Thus Professor Dr. Jutta Allmendinger, President of the WZB Berlin
Social Science Center, warns against
prioritizing business success, differing
management styles and skills shortages as
the main motives for pursuing diversity.
“Furthering the careers of people from diverse backgrounds is primarily a question
of equal opportunities and equal rights.”
“The direct,
German way of
criticizing can
have disastrous
consequences
in Asia.”
DR. HONG YU
Playing the role of mediator
The fact is, people with roots in multiple
cultures are exceptionally quick to recognize differences of opinion or expression,
often helping to keep teams steady and
balanced. In many cases, they act as a
kind of buffer or intermediary when there
are cultural misunderstandings, because
they are readier to adapt to different patterns of thought and behavior, and find it
relatively easy to learn new languages.
On this issue, world citizen Young Sunwoo 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 diversity-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 Communication, where she looks after the employee newspaper.
57
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04.06.14 17:56
YESTERDAY AND TODAY
A broad field, ripe for innovation
ZF 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
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 first customers to install the
A 12 in their vehicles.
The A 12 universal
transmission
combined a manual
gearbox and rearwheel drive in a single
driveline system.
and
today
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 powershift 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 reduced overall height – like the Steyr Multi (see photo).
ZF’s TPT 11 powershift
transmission has 32
forward and 32 reverse
speeds, along with an
ergonomically tuned
quad powershift.
58
EN_58_ZF_Drive_01_2014 58
1.2014
02.06.14 11:55
SERVICE
THE ZF MAGAZINE
1.2014
BRAZIL
ALWAYS
ON THE GO
PLUG-IN HYBRID
Powertrain of the future
DIVERSITY
Victory through variety
TECHNOLOGY
The art of lightweight design
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Publisher ZF Friedrichshafen AG,
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02.06.14 12:42
WE ARE WITH ZF.
STUDENTS AND MOTORSPORTS FANS.
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.
STUDENTS
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02.06.14 11:57