IF makes it easy
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• German gearbox manufacturer ZF has confirmed that full production of its Easy Shift (ES) electro-pneumatic gear change system, based on the Ecosplit 16-speed synchromesh gearbox, will begin "sometime in the middle of the year", although it is not revealing which vehicle manufacturer will be the first to offer it.
Easy Shift is similar in principle to the Mercedes-Benz Electronic Power Shift (EPS) gearchange system, currently fitted as standard on M-B's 1644 and 1635 models. The ES unit has a conventional gear lever in the truck cab, but connected to the Ecosplit box by an electro-pneumatic, rather than mechanical linkage.
Unlike the Mercedes EPS gearchange on which up or down shifts are made by pushing its short stubby lever either forwards or backwards, ZF's Easy Shift retains a more conventional Ecosplit double-H gate for gear selection. The ES system is also incapable of selecting a gear independently of the driver.
ZF is not revealing which of the manufacturers currently fitting manual Ecosplit gearboxes (including Daf, Iveco, Mercedes and Pegaso) will be the first to offer Easy Shift, either as standard or an an on-line option, but it claims that ES will be made available to those manufacturers which supply trucks and buses with the Ecosplit gearbox to the UK market.
In addition to developing Easy Shift, ZF is working on a more automated version of the Ecosplit box called AVS which is scheduled for production in 1988. In parallel with its automated gearbox work, ZF is also trying to reduce the shift loads on the manual Ecosplit box.
Key: 1, Gear selector with double-H pattern; 2, Electronic control preventing over-revving; 3. Shift cylinder 314 (718); 4, Shift Cylinder 112 (516); 5, Indicator switch for range-change group; 6. Electronic speedometer; 7, shift valve for range-change group; 8, Shift valve for splitter; 9. Indicator switch for splitter group; 10, Central valve block; 11, Main shift valve; 12, Indicator "gear engaged"; 13, Shift cylinder for reverse; 14, Indicator switch reverse gear.