Re-defining engine cooling TitanX

of Conduct’, which is designed for our suppliers and business partners”

Since 2003, MAN has been presenting the coveted MAN Truck & Bus Supplier Awards to companies whose products and services have made special contributions to the quality and reliability of its commercial vehicles. Recently its annual special supplier award ceremony was held at MAN’s global headquarters in Munich, where prizes were awarded to ten companies for their outstanding performance. In all more than 1200 suppliers contribute to making MAN’s trucks, buses and engines some of the most efficient and reliable in the world.

Recent winners of the MAN Bus & Truck Supplier Awards come mostly from Germany and Austria and include Dometic WAECO GmbH, EFS Euro Forming Services GmbH, Kuster Automotive Door Systems GmbH and Thysen Krupp Steel Europe AG. In addition, other recent winners included Bozankaya Metall & Kunststoffe GmbH, Menden Johnson Controls Autobatterie GmbH, Garching Mekra Lang GmbH & Co KG, Ergersheim Scherdel GmbH and HJS Emission Technology GmbH of Germany.

The zero-error principle

Based upon its forward-looking zero-error principle – “Accept no mistakes, make no mistakes and pass on no mistakes” – together with its suppliers, MAN ensures it optimises its quality assurance measures and high standards of efficiency and reliability. In collaboration with its suppliers, the company sets the

standards for process variables such as quality, adherence to deadlines and inventory costs. A continuous improvement process and regularly certified quality management systems form the basis for swift implementation.

Protection of the environment is also a priority at MAN Truck & Bus. The company has therefore created a management system that covers environmental compatibility, with particular regard to recycling, packaging and waste disposal and transport. The same high standards of environmental care are expected from all MAN suppliers and partners. n

For further details of MAN Bus & Truck products and services visit: www.man.eu

RE-DEFINING

ENGINE COOLING

TitanX is a world leader in the design and manufacture of advanced cooling systems for commercial vehicles and industrial diesel engines. Philip Yorke talked to Stefan Nordström the company’s CEO, about its dynamic expansion strategy and latest high-tech cooling solutions.

TitanX is headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden, and is a leading global supplier of diesel engine cooling solutions for trucks, buses, off-highway equipment and industrial diesel engines. The company was formerly owned by the French automotive group ‘Valeo’ and was acquired by the Swedish private equity group, ‘EQT’ in 2008. The company has two plants in Sweden, one plant in the US and another newly started state-of-the-art facility in Brazil. In addition, new high-tech plants are currently being constructed in China and Mexico and these are planned to come on stream by 2015.

Today TitanX produces a wide range of highly engineered heat exchangers, which are sold as single components or assembled in modules to meet the individual specifications of its big OEM customers. The company’s diverse product range includes frame-mounted radiators, ‘charge’ air coolers and condensers, as well as engine or transmission-mounted oil coolers.

TitanX is unique in that it is the only manufacturer that focuses exclusively on the commercial vehicle market and depends primarily on the growing global market for heavy trucks. The long-term outlook for this market sector remains positive and is supported by the high average age of current truck fleets, as well as a growing demand for commercial transport in the world’s expanding economies. In 2013 TitanX recorded sales of more than €150 million and currently employs over 800 people worldwide.

Innovation and investment driving sales

Since TitanX was acquired by EQT in 2008, during the onset of the global recession, the company has been able to not only weather the economic storm, but has demonstrated consistent growth. When the new CEO, Stefan Nordström, who had gained top executive experience with major global commercial vehicle companies such as Volvo and leading power companies such as ABB, came onboard in August of 2010, TitanX started the work with transforming its three factories into one company. This meant the company centralised all its main business functions such as R&D, sales and marketing but also rationalised its operating procedures and centralised its key support functions. This impetus was further enhanced in 2013 with a changed operating model and the appointment of a new Group Executive Committee.

Constant innovation is at the heart of TitanX’s remarkable success story and its technological leadership is based upon the company’s passion for efficiency and care of the environment. It is well known that for many years the various ‘fluid loops’ have been designed independently, which has led to cooling systems that were not optimized, thus leading to system inefficiency and increased fuel consumption.

With TitanX’s ‘Optimal Cooling’ solutions the company looks at the thermal management of the power-train as a whole, to create components that work together to optimise heat extraction. This advanced technology increases component durability whilst reducing the vehicle’s carbon footprint, the size of heat-exchange components and overall operating costs.