ArvinMeritor is re-establishing its off-highway original equipment and aftermarket components business.

“ArvinMeritor has been a major player in the specialty vehicles and off-highway components business for close to 100 years, and we are now poised to re-establish this business,” said Tim Bowes, vice-president of specialty products for ArvinMeritor’s commercial vehicle systems business.

Dale Eschenburg, the director of engineering, stressed the importance of operating in-house metallurgical laboratories, test fixtures and dynamometers, vehicle simulation software, extensive application analysis, and utilization of gear design and manufacturing technologies.

“Our customers recognize our gear design capabilities, as well as our resources, in conducting parallel engineering and testing,” Eschenburg said .

A new global hub reduction axle family of single and tandem rear axles has been designed by ArvinMeritor to offer operational flexibility, and has been introduced for the heavy-haul and construction, refuse, logging, concrete, and mining vocational markets, according to Bowes.

The axles, offered initially to the Asian market, provide up to a 600-lbs weight savings and a wide ratio range to meet the needs of “virtually any on-off-highway application, as well as a host of suspension adaptations and brake offerings,” according to ArvinMeritor.

The global hub reduction axle family offers technology for highway and vocational applications requiring higher gross combination weight. The advantages come from several key features of the new fully-dressed axle assembly, including: four-planet wheel-end hub-reduction gearing for higher capacity ratings and superior performance, and needle-bearing design throughout the inter-axle differential, which provides spin-out protection and eliminates the need for a lube pump.