German OEM Kögel has shared a first insight into the performance of the company’s new, captive axle offering.
Since the beginning of April, the Kögel Trailer Axle (KTA), which was presented at the IAA Commercial Vehicle Show in 2016, has reportedly been fitted as standard across a wide variety of models, ranging from general fright through to refrigerated equipment.
While Kögel did not reveals any details as to what percentage of vehicles leaving the factory are fitted with the new product, it did point out that the axle’s unique design may help increase payloads and extend a trailer’s service life.
“The newly integrated system is the strong backbone of…Kögel vehicles. Specially designed for Kögel trailers, it further enhances the trailers' driving properties,” the OEM summarised.
“The new axle achieves optimum maintenance-friendliness, the main requirement of Kögel customers, also resulting in higher cost-efficiency.”
The KTA uses two U-bolts to connect trailing arm and axle, with the axle tube enclosed by the trailing arm at the top and the axle spring seats at the bottom.
The trailing arm is made from high-strength spring steel that is said to offer the “optimum ratio of spring properties and resistance”, while a rubber metal bearing is meant to absorb both axial and transverse forces at the interface between the bracket and trailing arm to ensure “excellent suspension response behaviour thanks to its optimum torsional rigidity”.
According to Kögel, the KTA thus serves as a ‘double suspension’ providing “as much stability as needed, as much damping as possible”.
Kögel is the third German OEM to offer an in-house axle model. In 2014, Krone launched a captive axle following the acquisition of Gigant, and Schmitz Cargobull has been successful with the factory-fitted Rotos axle since 2005.