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MOTORINDIA
l
January 2012
JOST
’s new trailer axle and
suspension for Indianmarket
JOST, a leading producer of fifth
wheel couplings, kingpins and tel-
escopic landing gear, and the Ger-
man axle manufacturer Gigant have
set up a joint venture in India. The
project is for production of a new
trailer axle designed especially for
the Indian market at the JOST fac-
tory in Jamshedpur.
“With the production and sale of
a specially developed axle, we are
strengthening our activities in the
Indian sub-continent,” explained
JOST CEO Lars Brorsen.
JOST opened its plant for fifth
wheel couplings at Jamshedpur in
2008. The new axles will also be
produced there.
Whilst JOST has the production
facilities and an existing sales com-
pany in India, Gigant offers its vast
experience in the development and
manufacture of premium, sturdy ax-
les and suspension systems to the
joint venture. “Designed for resist-
ance to bending and torsional strain,
the JOST Gigant axles fulfil all the
demands of use under the high stress
conditions that we see in India,”
says Markus Gehle, Gigant CEO.
The axle has a beam made of pre-
mium fine-grained steel with shrink-
fitted welded stress parts. As with all
JOST trailer components, e-coating
reliably protects them against corro-
sion in the long term.
The new axle offers significant
advantages. The wheel heads are
designed with the brake drum be-
fore the wheel hub, which allows the
drum to be dismantled without hav-
ing to open the hub unit or the wheel
bearing. As a result, the hub and
bearing need not be adjusted while
replacing the brake linings.
Mechanical spring suspension
systems
The new axle is combined with
mechanical spring suspension sys-
tems, which is typical in India. Dual
and tri-axle versions are both avail-
able. The suspension is equipped
with leaf springs, which are made
up of several layers of springs with
a consistent profile and trapezoidal
tiered lengths. Individual springs
can thus be easily replaced. The
ends of the springs are supported
products & components (Auto Expo preview)
by the rotating swash plates, which
mean a static balance is maintained
between stresses on the axles during
normal vehicle operation.
Care has been taken to ensure easy
serviceability. The spare parts have
been standardized to fit existing di-
mensions readily available in the In-
dian market.
The Jost Group company Tridec
will exhibit its products at Auto
Expo for the first time. The products
for display are the HF-E hydraulic
steering system to get the optimum
steering angles, depending on the
trailer configuration such as the
number of axles, axle spread, etc.
The second product is the TP-O
hydraulic pendular axle suspen-
sion. Tridec can combine the TP-O
suspension with its ride height con-
trol system for easy changes in ride
height and comfortably get the trail-
er back into the ride height.
w
“At the same time, we are in-
creasing our competitiveness in
the Indian market as a complete
provider of chassis and connec-
tion components for trailers.”
– Mr. Lars Brorsen