Skip to main content

50 years of driveline technology

ZF has celebrated 50 years of developing and producing driveline technology and axle systems for construction machinery at its location in Passau, Germany. The company is also celebrating two world premieres: ZF cPower, a continuously variable construction machinery transmission, and ZF Ergopower Hybrid.
May 14, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
2304 ZF has celebrated 50 years of developing and producing driveline technology and axle systems for construction machinery at its location in Passau, Germany.

The company is also celebrating two world premieres: ZF cPower, a continuously variable construction machinery transmission, and ZF Ergopower Hybrid.

ZF’s path in construction machinery started off with powershift transmissions, planetary design and reduplan transmissions for wheel and crawler excavators. Then its product portfolio was extended to steering and rigid axles for construction machinery.

In 1997 series production of the ZF-Ergopower transmission started, and according to ZF “to the present day Ergopower transmissions are still common practice in many wheel loaders, dumpers and aircraft tow tractors.”

Hermann Beck, vice president business unit Construction Machinery Systems at ZF Passau, said: “ZF develops the whole driveline ranging from transmissions over axles to hydraulic/electronic control elements and functional software. Thanks to the optimised interaction with diesel engine and working hydraulics the driveline becomes an integral component of the overall vehicle system. This is the only way to achieve up to 20% fuel savings as well as up to 40% productivity increase in the latest transmission generation.”

Today ZF Passau is represented with driveline technology and axle systems for construction machinery on all international markets with its export rate of over 80%.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • A competitive market
    August 2, 2012
    Competition is increasing in the earthmoving sectors, and for some companies market share is improving The wheeled loader market is becoming more competitive, with a number of firms now challenging the leading players, Caterpillar, Komatsu and Volvo. In other earthmoving product sectors such as excavators, companies such as Case, Doosan, Hyundai, JCB, Liebherr and Volvo are becoming more aggressive in terms of sales and are capturing market share. Case is gearing up its operations in Western Europe, Eastern
  • Terex in Red Diesel Replacement programme
    September 15, 2023
    The UK government has chosen six projects to move forward within the Red Diesel Replacement programme as a way to decarbonise construction, mining and quarrying.
  • 10 years of smart excavation
    March 6, 2024

    It is now 10 years since Komatsu introduced its intelligent machine control technology intended to help customers achieve more work in less time and with higher quality.

  • Quarry operators improve on productivity
    February 13, 2012
    With capital expenditure plans being reduced, many quarry operators are using the funds available to improve on productivity with their existing equipment fleets. Claire Symes reports. The economic downturn has had a big impact on the aggregates production sector with many quarry operators looking to reduce costs and rationalise operations. The impact of this can be seen in the reduction of capital expenditure plans but the investments that are being made are focused on efficiency.