BPW marks 125th anniversary milestone
Mobility services provider BPW is celebrating 125 years of operation this month.
The family-owned company – which was founded on 15 July 1898 as Bergische Patentachsenfabrik GmbH in Wiehl (BPW), Germany – began as a blacksmith’s forge for carriage axles with 12 employees. Today its trailer axles and running gear systems are in use in millions of vehicles around the world.
The internationally active BPW Group has around 7,000 employees worldwide and achieves consolidated sales of 1.731 billion euros. Nowadays, BPW researches, develops and produces a comprehensive portfolio of products and services for the transport sector. In addition to trailer axles and running gear systems, this also includes brakes, lighting, fasteners / trailer superstructure technology and telematics.
“The invention of a self-lubricating carriage axle in the company’s early years gave BPW vehicle operators more economy per mile by eliminating the need for time-consuming and cost-intensive lubrication,” explained Achim Kotz, managing director of BPW, who manages the family business in the fourth generation as the parent company of the international BPW Group.
“This is an early example of our commitment to the needs of vehicle operators, which we still express today with our mobility partnership. Since axles that offered such benefits also naturally sold well, at the same time this example is early proof of our system partnership with vehicle manufacturers.
“Then as now, BPW’s goal is to develop cutting-edge products and solutions for commercial vehicles that offer sustainable advantages to vehicle manufacturers, fleet operators and specialist workshops – economically as well as ecologically.”
Even after 125 years, BPW is still developing new ideas in its traditional business field of axles: its generator axle, ePower, will shortly be going into series production. It generates electricity while driving and braking and uses this to electrically power a refrigeration unit. This permits low-noise and low-emission cooling transport.
At the transport logistic trade fair in Munich in May, BPW presented the new generation of iC Plus trailer running gear for the first time. Together with its subsidiary idem telematics, BPW is thus paving the way for AI-supported maintenance management.
“There have been ups and downs throughout the company’s 125 years of history,” added Achim Kotz.
“But BPW stands for durability. Because as a family business, we don’t think and act in quarterly terms, but in terms of generations. Continuity, reliability and trust are values that shape our relationship with customers, partners and above all our employees. Ever since the company was founded, these have provided security and orientation – even through upheavals and crises.”
Today, the origins of the company and the 5,500-year history of axle, wheel and carriage can be seen in the BPW Museum – while some of the company’s most significant patents which have made a lasting difference to vehicle technology and operation can be found on the content portal www.motionist.com.
In 1905, the first BPW in-house development was patented – the Noko axle was named after Otto Nohl and Gustav Friedrich Kotz, who owned the company at the time. BPW revolutionised trailer construction with the development and market launch of the roller bearing axle for truck trailers in 1925, as this allowed a reduction in tractive force of 50 per cent, lubricant savings of 80 per cent and fuel savings of 10 per cent.
This was followed a few years later by the development of a new type of tubular axle with swaged steering knuckles, which brought a significant reduction in weight compared to axles made of solid material and thus allowed a greater payload.
The company was converted into a limited partnership in 1937. It also opened its first sales outlets in the 1930s and took over the distribution of its products independently. Today, it operates a worldwide distribution network with subsidiaries in 27 countries. The branch factory in Brüchermühle was set up in 1954 to increase production capacity.
BPW has produced another important innovation in truck trailer construction since 1958: the square hollow axle. Unlike axles with a solid cross-section, the hollow axles saved a lot of weight and also allowed a greater load capacity. In 1959, BPW presented the first air suspension axle for truck trailers.
In the 1960s, production capacities were further expanded – and for the first time also internationally. The factory in South Africa started production in 1962. Three years later, the Hunsheim branch in the Bergisches Land area of Germany was commissioned and today specialises in the production of the trailer disc brake Eco Disc, which was developed in-house.
In 1968, BPW acquired the Danish-based company Transport-Teknik, which manufactures complete lighting and cable systems under the brand Ermax.
HBN-Teknik, based in Denmark and a specialist in plastics technology for vehicle construction, has been part of the BPW Group since 1982. In 1983, BPW was the first company in the sector to introduce ‘documented production’. This, says the company, enabled it to secure the highest quality standards for its products, because for the first time it was possible to track every manufacturing stage of the individual products.
Six years later the BPW Eco system was launched on the market as a unit consisting of a pre-assembled tapered roller bearing, thrust ring and axle nut. It is still used today.
Further milestones in the company’s development followed in the nineties with joint ventures in Hungary and China. In 1993, BPW acquired F. Hesterberg & Söhne GmbH & Co. KG, based in Ennepetal, which sells fasteners and trailer superstructure technology under the Hestal brand name.
In 1998, the year of the company’s 100th anniversary, the world’s first KTL coating system for trailer axles was put into operation in Wiehl: the Cathodic dip painting (KTL) with zinc phosphating is said to provide five times more corrosion protection than a conventional primer coat with top coat.
In 2012, BPW acquired a majority stake in idem GmbH, a market leader for telematics systems. Shortly afterwards, the BPW Group realigned itself as a mobility partner for vehicle operators and as a system partner for vehicle manufacturers.
BPW acquired the truck telematics provider Funkwerk eurotelematik GmbH in 2014. As a result of this merger with idem GmbH to form idem telematics GmbH, the BPW Group was able to provide holistic telematics solutions for trucks and trailers. At the same time, with the introduction of its motto ‘we think transport’, the BPW Group emphasised its goal to provide future-proof solutions for the transport industry in the shape of new technologies and user-friendly truck and trailer telematics.
BPW presented the electrically driven eTransport axle for the first time at the IAA in 2016.
