OREANDA-NEWS. First-tier auto-industry supplier KSPG, a member of the Rheinmetall Technology Group, has recently intensified its cooperation with ZF Friedrichshafen AG. The companies signed a five-year agreement with a life-time value of around €66 million.

Products supplied are thrust washers and bushes used in transmissions, brakes, shock absorbers, chassis systems and damped flywheels. This makes the KSPG-subsidiary KS Gleitlager GmbH a 100-percent global supplier of bearings for ZF's 6-, 8- and 9-speed automatic transmissions. The contract extending over a number of years, secures bearings-specialist KSPG a solid position for follow-up projects.

The contract covers both metallic as well as metal/plastic composite bearings under the brand name Permaglide. The required materials and geometries will be individually adapted to ensure that the respective system requirements are perfectly fulfilled. The most important criteria are the degree of friction and wear reduction along with the robustness of the bearings. It is these properties that contribute to a reduction in fuel consumption and hence emissions when driving.

The components will be manufactured at the main plant in Germany, St. Leon-Rot, and at the plant in Celaya, Mexico.

KSPG AG, Neckarsulm, Germany, which represents the Mobility sector within Germany's Rheinmetall Group, has annual sales of around €2.6 billion (2015) and ranks among the 100 biggest auto-industry suppliers worldwide. Some 11,000 employees at around 40 production plants in Europe, the Americas, Japan, India and China develop and manufacture components, modules and assemblies for the drive systems of present and future vehicles.