ContiTech Press Releases

Frankfurt, September 2010The cab mount air springs with integral shock absorbers are perfectly matched and of the quality ContiTech is known for

For the first time, ContiTech Air Spring Systems is marketing air spring modules for the open replacement trade. Intended for cab suspension, the modules are delivered together with hydraulic dampers. The air spring modules are sold under the Phoenix brand name – ContiTech’s quality brand for the replacement market. The high-quality modules match perfectly and, when it comes to quality, they are a real alternative to the original replacement part. ContiTech will be premiering the new product at the Automechanika from September 14 to 19, 2010 in Frankfurt (hall 2.0, booth C 36).

The new air spring modules for cab mounts from ContiTech are delivered with hydraulic shock absorbers and sold under the brand name Phoenix.

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ContiTech is thus following an important trend as more and more customers from the open replacement trade prefer overall solutions to individual components. The advantage of these systems is that they are tuned to each other as a unit and with regards to quality – a high-quality air spring also needs the suitable shock absorber. Hydraulic shock absorbers which are available on the open replacement market as individual part or in air spring modules often cannot provide sufficient damping: “And you really can’t see whether a damper can do the job until you determine its hysteresis characteristic on the test machine. Some dampers available on the replacement market provide only 50% of the damping required. The air spring suffers accordingly, and thus the entire system,” says Dirk Hoffmeister, head of the Commercial Vehicle Replacement segment at ContiTech.

In the production of the new air spring modules, ContiTech profits from many years of expertise in air springs and development in the field of conventional air spring system. ContiTech obtains the hydraulic shock absorber, which completes the module, from a German manufacturer: “We want to offer our customers – in the replacement market, in particular – a product that meets up to our high quality demands, also as regards the damper. That is why we opted for a manufacturer that has excellent development know-how and produces the dampers in Germany. Here we can be sure that the quality is up to snuff,” explains Hoffmeister.

ContiTech thus offers its partners in the open replacement market a high-quality alternative that was previous not available, despite numerous suppliers. “Our medium-term goal is to be able to cover 90% of the current range of air spring modules for cab mounts in Europe,” says Hoffmeister.