BPW marked their 125th year celebrations at this year’s Brisbane Truck Show, with a range of products the industry has grown to trust for reliability, durability, and performance.
With brands such as BPW, Edbro, Ringfeeder, Cargo Floor and others coming together with BPW Transpec, there was over 400 years of combined experience on display, providing products that are all engineered to last.
BPW Transpec, a wholly owned subsidiary of German company BPW, is well known for its group of products and support across the road transport, agriculture and mining industries here in Australia and New Zealand.
BPW Transpec’s Managing Director, Stefan Oelhafen, updated Fleet News Group on the latest from this year’s show.
“It’s great being back at the Brisbane Truck show and seeing so many of our customers coming to catch up with us and chat with the team,” said Oelhafen.
Products on display included the industry leading BPW Axles, with their 1,000,000 km and 3-year ECO Plus 3 Hub Warranty for on-highway vehicles in Australia. With the 9 to 12 ton per axle capacity range, BPW offers square and round beam axles as well as high efficiency grease lubrication.
In November 2018 BPW Transpec re-introduced alloy hubs for both the disc brake and drum brake BPW ECO Plus 3 axles, supplied in the 10 stud 285 PCD. With a saving of 10 kilograms per hub unit, operators pushing for maximum payload could save 35 kilograms per assembled axle when used in conjunction with the lightweight brake drums.
For those running disc brakes, the new TS2 disc brake system provides a saving of around 24 kilograms per assembled axle, which has been developed from the proven BPW TSB disc brake system to take trailer disc brake systems into the future.
BPW also displayed their Air Save tyre inflation system. ‘
“Our tyre inflation system has been receiving a lot of interest. It has been on sale for a couple of years now and we have received great feedback about its benefits, especially for reducing tyre wear,” explains Oelhafen.
As with all products in the range, BPW put them through extensive testing before they are released onto the market.
“We always make sure that we test any new product thoroughly in Australia before launching them into the market. We take this very seriously to ensure that they can withstand the harsh conditions here.”
One new product that stood out, was BPW’s much anticipated ePower axle module that has been developed by the engineers at BPW to recover energy when the trailer is moving, enabling a carbon-neutral and quiet supply of power to refrigeration units for temperature-controlled transport.
Intelligent energy management ensures that Thermo King’s latest generation of refrigeration unit always has power from its battery system, supplied by the axle’s two generators, even on long journeys or in traffic jams without unnecessary strain on the prime mover.
The overall system, created by the two partners, is the perfect solution for many of Europe’s upcoming bans on vehicle emissions, with the potential to save 10 tons of CO2 emissions per year. It can also offer great savings for operators here in Australia, potentially up to 4,000 litres of diesel per refrigerated trailer in some instances, which could see a pay back within just six years.
‘The e-axles have been on trial in Europe now for some time and we will put a prototype into operation here this year. Our ePower axle has been developed with a lot of smarts in the control unit, so it can determine if it needs to charge the battery as you travel along or not, which improves efficiency for the Truck and trailer. It is like a smart regen system working in conjunction with the cooling system,’ says Oelhafan.
“The focus will initially be for the refrigerated market to allow operators to run their fridge units without diesel, then we could look at additional applications in the future.”
