Sealed for success Federal-Mogul

SEaLED foR SUccESS

Federal-Mogul Hungary plays an important role in the global operations of the American Federal-Mogul Corporation. Its factory in Kunsziget supplies prominent car manufacturers and auto component producers in central and eastern Europe, manufacturing award-winning products. Edina Beale reports.

Founded in 1899 in Detroit, Federal-Mogul Corporation today supplies the world’s biggest car manufacturers and operates in 36 countries. The company operates two business divisions: Federal-Mogul Powertrain focuses on original equipment powertrain products for automotive, heavy-duty and industrial applications; Federal-Mogul Motorparts sells and distributes a broad portfolio of products in the global vehicle aftermarket, while also serving original equipment (OE/OES) manufacturers with vehicle products including brake friction, chassis, wipers and other components.

Kunsziget factory

Federal-Mogul’s global vehicle aftermarket division has had an official sales department in Hungary since 2008 and has owned the Kunsziget factory, Federal-Mogul Hungary Kft, since 1999. The factory in Kunsziget was set up in 1996 by the German company Glöckler, which had its main manufacturing in Bretten, Germany and transferred some of its production to Hungary. When Federal-Mogul acquired Glöckler in 1999, it acquired the Hungarian operation too. In 2001 Federal-Mogul closed one of its locations in Cardiff, South Wales and transferred that facility’s production of dynamic seals and valve stem seals to Kunsziget. In 2003 a new purpose-built facility was constructed on the site and all of the manual labour production work at the Bretten facility was moved across. In 2004 the new facility enabled the transfer of wiper blade assembly work from other locations in Europe across to Hungary, so that FederalMogul could once again benefit from the location of the site and the low-cost labour.

Essentially Federal-Mogul Hungary produces four main products – static cold gaskets, dynamic seals, vale stem seals and wiper blades. The company’s main brands, which include Champion, Moog, Ferodo, Beral, Payen, Goetze, Nural, AE, Glyco and FP-diesel, are well known names across Europe; it supplies autoparts to 98.5 per cent of European vehicles. Products manufactured at Kunsziget are delivered direct to the customer on a just-in-time basis, whether engine builders or automotive assembly plants. The nearest customer is Audi’s engine plant 20km away in Győr, but the company supplies many other prominent automotive companies including BMW, Volkswagen and Daimler, as well as autopart manufacturers including Continental and Bosch.

New parts distribution facility

Recently Federal-Mogul’s aftermarket division, Federal-Mogul Motorparts, has signed a contract with Kuehne + Nagel who will run a newly built automotive service parts distribution facility near Budapest, Hungary. The parts distribution facility (PDC), which is located in Páty, will supply service outlets in southern, eastern and central Europe in conjunction with Federal-Mogul’s distribution centre in Willebroek, Belgium. The Páty facility will also serve markets in Africa and those in adjacent

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PmG east Srl. started operations in January 2006 at Timisoara (Romania) with a mixing unit for conventional black compound. The site is equipped with a state of the art mixing line to serve our Customers in Central and Eastern Europe.

PmG Rubber Technology (Changshu) Co ltd. In December 2016, PMG Rubber Technology Ltd has started operations in Changshu (China). The plant is located in Fervent Industrial Park, north of Shanghai on an area of 7500sqm. The unit is equipped with two lines for black and coloured FKM and a line for black compounds in operation by the end of 2017. A local team of experienced technicians and sales professionals, laboratory facility and modern equipment together with PMG know-how represent a unique opportunity to be close to our customers in the Asia Pacific markets.

EU countries according to a statement from Kuehne + Nagel. The facility has 23,000m2 of storage space and will stock the full range of FederalMogul brands. Andrew Sexton, president of EMEA Aftermarket and regional president, EMEA, Federal-Mogul Motorparts, said the facility would help the company achieve the best lead times.

Award winning product made in Hungary

Product development has always been a key factor behind Federal-Mogul’s global success. At the early stages of a new project, Federal-Mogul’s product and application engineers work alongside the customer’s technical team from concept through to prototype; the local sites are getting involved at the prototype stage, taking this through to series production.

In 2015 Federal-Mogul Powertrain won two Automotive News PACE (Premier Automotive Suppliers’ Contribution to Excellence) awards in Detroit. This prestigious award recognises automotive suppliers for superior innovation, technological advancement and business performance. The company earned PACE awards for its MicroTorq and DuroGlide Low Friction Ring Pack technologies.

MicroTorq is an innovative elastomeric shaft seal that addresses the automotive industry’s need for reduced parasitic power losses. MicroTorq reduces frictional losses by up to 80 per cent versus comparable designs, and CO2 reduction of up to 1.5 g/km per engine. The new design concept relies on a dual-hinge flex section to maintain uniform contact with the rotating shaft without creating high loads and without jeopardising the durability or reliability of an engine, and is capable of performing under all engine application conditions.

The award winning MicroTorq is manufactured by Federal-Mogul Hungary in Kunsziget. “This award is a serious international recognition of the Hungarian production site and proves that Hungarian professionals are able to contribute with high standards to the success of a world leading automotive suppliers,” said Peter Macsotai, the manager of the shaft seal factory in Kunsziget, Hungary. “When manufacturing the MicroTorq shaft seal product it is especially important to meet the requirements of the injection moulding technology and to check the surface of the product by 3D scanning, at which staff at the Kunsziget factory are highly skilled.”

Since the introduction of MicroTorq seal in 2010, this product has been used by more than 15 motor platforms, including General Motors, who used the product for their new Ecotec motor generation. The high demand for this product is expected to grow and Federal-Mogul plans to increase annual production of MicroTorq to 10 million. n