The shutdown of local car manufacturing and the reduction in truck assembly capacity in Australia has left automotive brake equipment and component maker, Bendix as the last remaining aftermarket automotive brake manufacturer in Australia.
Bendix is still developing a wide range of disc brake pads at its Ballarat facility, which it says are locally ‘designed, engineered and made for our demanding conditions’.
Bendix exports selected disc brake pads to New Zealand and much further afield as well as servicing the domestic market, with the company also exporting to the Middle East, citing its hybrid manufacturing capabilities as the reason it has been able to stay competitive, while stimulating technological advancements and new process.
Bendix says its two-pronged approach to manufacturing centres on its ability to handle both low and high volume manufacturing runs depending on customer requirements. It also said its local manufacturing presence also means that the company can turn around orders – from manufacture to stock on shelves – much faster than competitors who are affected by long import supply chains.
The company says that the bulk of its high volume runs are handled with its semi-autonomous press, which it says has the capacity to manufacture as many as 2,000 disc brake pads per shift or 4,500 over a full 24 hour production cycle.
It says that this ‘clever’ machine is computer controlled and loads friction material mixes into its four cavity mould dies by itself, before using a 160 tonne press to compress materials into the required shape and consistency. Bendix says the unit is able to manufacture up to six different pad types, for different models at once, and can also handle a variety of pad types at the same time. Importantly, it says that production errors using this machine are virtually non-existent.
The company says the cavity moulds for each different brake pad model are designed and engineered in-house by Bendix engineers, ensuring they meet the company’s stringent quality control requirements. The semi-autonomous press is currently being kept busy producing disc brake pads for a number of vehicle types and models including the high selling local Ford Ranger and Toyota Hilux Utes, and Toyota Camry pads, which are being supplied to Toyota for export to the Middle East.
Bendix adds that smaller volume production at its manufacturing facility is handled manually by production staff on machines known as ‘Troika presses’.
The Troika presses were apparently designed and built in Ballarat along with their cavity moulds, with each production team member typically overseeing four Troiker presses in rotation across two shifts to minimise repetitive processes per shift. These presses typically produce around 300 brake pads.
Within this timeframe, the company says the team can manufacture pads to suit between 15 and 20 different models, meaning that the brake pads can get to market quickly and efficiently. The company claims that from the time of order, to stock at the warehouse is normally less than a week.
Bendix says it is well progressed in further increasing its short run capabilities, working towards being able to efficiently produce single, made-to-order products, which will be a game-changer for the industry.
Away from the presses, Bendix has also recently introduced line changes that it says bring greater efficiency to the packaging process for its disc brake pads, citing advanced new scanning and sorting methods that enable disc brake pads to be finished together in complete sets.
Bendix explained that previously, different brake pad components needed to be picked and brought together for batching and packaging. However the new process sees the brake pads ground, painted and branded ‘left’ and ‘right’, with shims and abutment clips added on the line, and together the complete pad set is ready for shrink wrapping and boxing at the same time.
The company said that these line upgrades have reduced line set-up time by 30 minutes per day, while also increasing the number of finished pieces per shift from 6,500 to approximately 8,000 pieces.
