Vital co ponent: testing
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With its careful inspection service, Fleet Parts rejects 15% of units provided in exchange for remanufacture. As each unit is completed, the engineer carries out a series of tests
IN As vehicles have got progressively more sophisticated, there has been a complimentary growth in specialist companies dealing with specific componentry. Reflecting this increasing specialisation in the truck engineering business is Fleet Parts. Woolston, Warrington.
This business has grown rapidly over the past 11 years, its growth being based principally on the remanufacture of air brake components. Although this activity has been supplemented by other remanufacturing activities, the air-brake side still provides the majority of Fleet Parts turnover and profits.
As a specialist in its chosen field, Fleet Parts is an ideal start for a series of articles in Workshop. These will examine the benefits (and pitfalls) of remanufactured and reconditioned truck componentry. Air brake components are items which any responsible person would be unwilling to sacrifice quality for cost savings.
Even reputable operators in recent years have suffered from the appallingly low quality standards of look-alike imitation components originating from Taiwan, India and other Eastern countries. At best these components have delivered minimal service life and at worst have failed catastrophically causing accidents. Faced with this background, any company in the brake component business has to be quality conscious it if is to succeed.
A view of the company's modern Warrington facilities gives a dramatic indication of its growth. From one small rectangular workshop/office block there has been a series of extensions in the same building style to form a U-shaped facility covering three sides of the plot.
Today Fleet Parts has some 60 people working on its two Warrington sites — besides the 2,044sqm (22,000sqft) main plant the company has a separate engineering/machine shop nearby. Company turnover is over million per year. In addition the company has a separate Dublin-based operation to supply Eire.
Apart from quality, any remanufacturee component has to be priced right ant available. While many transport engineers are convinced of the cost benefits of these items, often they are not readily available. Managing director Colin Rothwell, is only too well aware of this. As a result Fleet Parts has made extensive efforts to achieve nationwide distribution. Currently the company supplies over 200 UK trade customers and, as many of these operations have a network of dealers, the actual number of outlets runs to several hundred.
Supplying these points, Fleet Parts runs its own delivery service and operates a special next-day VOR service through a local carrier. Over 5,000 parts lines are carried including items for airbrake systems, clutches and other friction materials and water pumps.
Colin Rothwell is confident that the Fleet Parts business will continue to grow. The success of the re-manufactured brake components business has seen the major original equipment brake manufacturers introduce their own range of re-manufactured units. Despite this Rothwell is able to quote significant cost savings of around 25% less than these units. And Fleet Parts offer a similar warranty.
"We are certain that the quality of our product is equal to that of original equipment manufacturers' remanufactured units. The standards that Fleet Parts work to are the same as those that the original equipment manufacturers use," Rothwell comments. This could be considered an unlikely claim until one inspects the quality and cleanliness of the Fleet Parts works. All components which are supplied in exchange for remanufacture are inspected externally.
At this stage many units are rejected before even being stripped, either through corrosion or external casting damage or port cracking. Then the units are completely dismantled, the company works to a batch system generally so that at any given stage large quantities of one unit type are being handled.
The dismantled units are then cleaned and de-greased for inspection. The cleaning process includes the use of a variety of shot and bead blasting processes suitable for steel or aluminium components.
Non-pressure steel housings are then primed and painted after the mounting studs are checked for alignment and replaced as necessary. Similarly aluminium parts are treated to prevent oxidisation.
At this stage the components are then moved to individual work bays for rebuild. The shop includes bays for spring cylinders, compressors, valves and the like where specialists in these individual components work on those items. Each bay is provided with a full range of new, consumable parts such as 0-rings, gaskets and seals for the relevant units. Only parts to original quality standards are used.
As each unit is completed the engineer responsible for its build carries out a series of tests to check for air leaks and overall operation on a test stand in his work bay. Then all units are sent for final test in a separate inspection bay. At this stage all ports and openings to the atmosphere are plugged or taped off.
Own packaging
Both Colin Rothwell and Peter Luby, Fleet Parts sales director, believe that the appearance and presentation of their products should reflect the internal quality built into the company's remanufactured units. As such the remanufactured units are professionally painted and port openings and the like blanked off to a similar standard to that of a new unit.
1987 will see Fleet Parts introduce its own packaging to be used to individually protect all its production to further enhance the products image.
With its careful inspection process, around 15% of all units provided in exchange for remanufacture are rejected. To provide replacement stocks for these rejected units many new units are used to keep up stock levels. Similarly Fleet Parts also buys in quantities of new items to provide the seed stock for additions to its range. Today the company reckons to be able to provide a virtually complete service for all UK manufacturers' vehicles above 3.5 tonnes gross in respect of air brake components, clutches and the like.
Peter Luby comments that the company has not overlooked the impact of imported vehicles on the UK market. Reflecting the success of imports in the market, Fleet Parts has a range of components which can provide virtually complete coverage on all the popular imports such as DAF, Mercedes, Volvo and Scania. The company reckons to provide more than 90% of all orders from stock at first pick. The small percentage that it cannot provide ex-stock is generally for less common makes or types of vehicles. But, the Fleet Parts service also includes a 24-hour remanufacture service for these more individual items, dependent on overhaul parts availability.
The company maintains its own machine shop to produce items such as spring-brake actuating rods and other components. "We are conscious that the items that we produce in house or buy in have to be to original standards," comments Rothwell. The company's quality standards have been recognised by original equipment manufacturers — a worthwhile sideline for the company is the assembly of brake components and the like for axle manufacturers.
"With our range we reckon to match the best remanufactured standards in every aspect at a considerable cost benefit for operators," comments Peter Luby.
To give an indication of the price differential between Fleet Parts remanufactured units and new/OE reninufactured units and repair kit prices, Colin Rothwell and Peter Luby have selected these 13endix units as being typical.
Spring-brake unit part no. KZ840, as fitted to Ford. This has a retail new price of .177.10. According to Fleet Parts, no genuine remanufactured is offered only a repair kit, part no. SK2816/1. This is priced at 01.23. The retail price of a Fleet Parts unit is £58.50.
For a load-sensing valve such as part no. KY807, which is a popular model fitted to a wide variety of trucks, this has a retail price of £178.40. The repair kit part no. SK2639 and is priced at £35.29. Fleet Parts can offer a complete remanufactured unit at £78.
The savings on things like compressors are equally impressive. Take a K2931B as fitted to a Bedford, this retails new at £328.83. A genuine remanufactured unit, K2931Kin, is priced at £216.87 and Fleet Parts offers its own remanufactured unit at 01.
Similarly Fleet Parts prices also compare well with Clayton Dewandre parts such as the APGA 1949B spring-brake fitted to a variety of models. This retails new at £127.15 with a genuine remanufactored unit available at £65. Fleet Parts has a unit priced retail at £52.80.
On another popular spring-brake unit such as the APGA 3530B, again this is a unit fitted to a variety of chassis, this has a retail price of £94.69. A genuine remanufactured unit APGA 3530EU is available at £70. The Fleet Parts remanufactured unit price is £42.25.