I recently visited the Firestone air springs manufacturing facility in Williamsburg, Kentucky. This is the world’s largest manufacturing facility for air springs with a capacity to turn out 10,000 air springs every day. Thats a mind boggling figure considering the fact the total market size for air springs in India is less than 100,000 units per annum.
More than 75 years ago, Firestone Industrial Products Company, LLC (FSIP) started a tradition of product technology and development that is unmatched today. That development has continued over the years, leading to a rich heritage in the automotive industry that is marked with infinite innovation and product improvements.
Firestone Industrial Products Company, part of the Bridgestone Group, has been the undisputed global leader in manufacture of Air Springs. Harvey S. Firestone, the Founder of the company, developed the first commercial air spring way back in 1935.
In the early 1930s, the automotive industry found itself under heavy pressure to improve the riding quality of passenger vehicles as a result of higher speeds, longer trips and improvements in other phases of automobile design and construction. Firestone, as a supplier of automotive suspension components in the form of tires, tube, rubber mounts and bushings, was interested in contributing to the solution.
Understanding the problems associated with rubber springs, including stiffness and inelasticity, Firestone entered into the development of an “air spring”, establishing a separate engineering facility for Automotive Research. The original concept for the Firestone Airide brand air spring was to enclose the load-carrying column of air in a rubber and fabric container, following tire construction principles whenever possible. The fabric provided the strength to hold the air pressure, while the rubber served to make the container impervious to air leakage and to provide a protective outer cover.
Since patenting the air spring in 1938, Firestone continued developing its technology. By the late 1940s, Firestone began providing air springs for highway bus suspension systems. In the early ‘60s, the business expanded to heavy duty trucks and trailers. In the late 1960s/early 1970s, Firestone began providing air springs for several railroad systems, including the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), Amtrak and Mass Atlanta Transit Authority (MATA). In the mid-1970s, the company purchased the Ride-Rite line of air helper springs and brought its first heavy duty aftermarket distributor on board.
From the very beginning, Firestone has set the standard in air spring technology. Today, a majority of the heavy duty commercial trucks and trailers in North America and Europe use air suspensions, with continuing growth in South America and Asia. Firestone now has air spring manufacturing and assembly facilities in four continents North America, South America, Europe and Asia.Headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, Firestone distributes its offerings, which boast ISO, QS and TS certifications, as both aftermarket and OE products around the world.
Firestone Industrial Products has made steady progress, growing to enjoy a 36 per cent share of the worldwide air spring market. Because of FSIP’s success in designing and manufacturing air springs for the international transportation industry and a broad variety of industrial applications, FSIP has become a global company in its own right.
FSIP has grown from a single plant in Indiana to a multinational manufacturing and distribution company. FSIP has designed and built more air springs for more applications than any other air spring company in the world, and with manufacturing and technological capabilities on four continents, FSIP has become the world’s leading air spring supplier.
Global partner
This division of approximately 1,500 associates is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. From this base, FSIP services its worldwide business through sales offices in Indianapolis; Detroit, MI; London, England; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Beijing, China; and New Delhi, India.
FSIP operates manufacturing facilities in Williamsburg, Kentucky; Dyersburg, Tennessee; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Wolsztyn, Poland; Madurai, India and has an assembly operation in Beijing, China. It also maintains a major warehousing operation in Rotterdam, Netherlands, to fulfill the requirements of customers internationally, with plans to further expand its local warehousing in the Asia-Pacific region.
In India, Firestone has established a JV with the TVS Group, Firestone TVS Private Ltd., with its manufacturing facility in Madurai. The company has started commercial production of air springs and in a short span has established leadership position in the Indian market.
In China, Firestone currently has an assembly facility. The company is investing on a new manufacturing facility near Beijing.
Product portfolio
Air springs are highly engineered elastomeric bellows with specially designed metal end closures that contain a column of compressed air. The bellow itself is constructed of calendered rubber and high-strength, fabric-reinforced rubber.
Most of the air springs FSIP makes are Airide air springs for truck, trailer, and bus suspensions. Few products have had more influence on the global trucking industry than the Airide air spring. Of all the trucks on the road today with air suspensions, more than half are equipped with Firestone brand Airide air springs. Marketing research indicates that Firestone is the best known brand of air spring in the world.
Airide air springs are sold directly to original equipment truck, trailer, and suspension manufacturers such as PACCAR (Peterbilt/Kenworth), Holland USA, Hendrickson International, Freightliner, Scania, Volvo, Mercedes Benz, and ArvinMeritor. Airide air springs are sold to the heavy-duty aftermarket through a network of national and international distributors.
FSIP also has a comprehensive range of air springs for passenger car, SUV and light truck, intermodal, rail and industrial applications.
Ride-Rite, Coil-Rite and Sport-Rite air springs are supplemental air springs that work with a vehicle’s existing steel leaf springs to provide a more controlled ride and to allow side-to-side and front-to-back leveling of the vehicle simply by varying the air pressure in the springs.
Firestone’s latest innovation, IntelliRide systems, incorporates automotive OEM pneumatic and electronic technology to provide air suspension solutions. The IntelliRide system is engineered to optimize air spring performance as it reads and adapts to road, vehicle, and driver inputs.
With these focused product lines, FSIP services the needs of a broad variety of businesses and industries globally. FSIP’s customer list includes many of the world’s largest truck manufacturers, trailer manufacturers, suspension builders, industrial accounts, automobile companies, and tire manufacturers.
Technology
Although product quality and customer service form the foundation of FSIP’s business, research and engineering have always been the cornerstone. The engineering department utilizes state-of-the-art CAD-FEA equipment and processes for product development. Today, with the global corporate resources of Bridgestone, FSIP has technical capabilities on three continents.
Major research and product development projects are conducted on an ongoing basis at the FSIP division engineering lab in Noblesville, at BFS Research Laboratories in Akron, Ohio, with FSIP European engineering resources, and at Bridgestone’s Technical Center in Tokyo. Firestone’s recent research and development capital investments include a 6 degree-of-freedom tester, as well as a high frequency machine designed to test harshness with a cycle rate up to 500Hz. These tools equip Firestone to optimize air spring designs that meet our customers’ needs.
This level of commitment and recognition serves to enhance Firestone Industrial Products’ position as the “World’s No.1 Air Spring”.
