Abstract
The increase in use of re-manufactured Brake Calipers in the commercial vehicle aftermarket is driven in part by end users looking for reduced cost of ownership, longer vehicle service lives and multiple vehicle re-sale into new and expanding markets. Environmental pressures to reduce waste coupled with the increasing costs of disposal are also factors creating demand for re-manufactured product.
This presents new challenges to the Brake Engineering community to ensure that safety standards normally associated with new brakes are met as well as establishing functional, durability and value criteria to meet the expectations of Aftermarket customers.
As the concept of re-manufactured brakes gains momentum across broader sectors of the market, customers need to be aware that standards of product integrity can vary dramatically between producers. Thus far re-manufactured brake calipers are largely unregulated although future legislative changes are expected to address this. Whilst regulation may focus on braking performance, it is up to responsible re-manufacturers to understand and demonstrate the structural safety of re-used caliper castings together with the functionality and durability of internal components. This has to be achieved in a commercially competitive and aggressive market thus providing ample opportunity to strive for innovative techniques to recover greater proportions of original product content.
Successful re-manufacturing of brakes therefore must move away from the sometimes witnessed poor standards of quality and performance to established levels of safe, wellregulated product backed by a technical competence able to compliment that of the original equipment itself.
KEYWORDS Re-manufactured, Aftermarket, brakes, performance, integrity