LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A new and serious player has emerged in the business of manufacturing undercarriage components for medium and heavy trucks. Trax Mechanical Systems, based in Louisville, Ky., is now supplying steer, trailer, and drive axles, plus air suspensions, brakes, and trailer landing gear to both OE and aftermarket customers.

The product line, much of which is available now, includes brake friction and remanufactured brake shoes. All products are made in China but are fully North Americanized and designed for interchangeability standards here.

Led for the most part by former ArvinMeritor executives, including co-founder, president and CEO Sergio Carvalho, Trax is a privately held American firm partnered with China’s Guandong Fuwa Heavy Industries. Carvalho, who was previously vice president and general manager of ArvinMeritor Commercial Vehicle Systems, is actually CEO of Fuwa as well, and leads a largely American team that’s in charge of almost all aspects of the Chinese operation from product engineering to sourcing and manufacturing.

The engineering directors for both drivetrain and trailer products are ex-ArvinMeritor people, for example, and the vice president, operations, previously headed GM Delphi Canada. The company’s co-founder, Vipan Bhalla, serves as vice president, manufacturing and strategic sourcing. He has extensive international experience.

Trax opened a 100,000-sq-ft facility in Louisville in February, its first North American plant, where final axle assembly will be done, along with brake-shoe re-manufacturing by this summer. It will also serve as a warehouse.

But it’s in China, in Taishin, an hour out of Hong Kong, where the manufacturing is done, and the company is nearing completion of a huge new plant there. Jim Sharkey, vice president of business development, says it’s a "state of the art" facility that consists of 12 separate factories in a mile-long row where the company will do its own stamping, forging, and gear cutting. In one of those buildings Trax will make brake linings, using some production equipment — dynamometers included — bought from bankrupt American friction-maker Carlisle. When it’s fully on stream, Sharkey says the plant will produce 25 million brake blocks a year, which could well make them the world’s friction leader.

All Trax products have premium features, he adds, saying that the steer axles coming this summer will be based on a tube design and will be the industry’s lightest while sacrificing no strength.

"We have to be better than the other guys," Sharkey explains, "because we’re new."

Trax is clearly not new, however, in the sense that its North American foundation is very strong going in.

"We know the market, the products, the fleets," Sharkey says. "We’ll be fully ready to roll when the market comes back."

Very quietly, Trax used the recent Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville to launch its line of Traxium trailer axles and landing gear. The axles are available in a full variety of specs, including standard and small-brake offerings, as well as heavy-duty applications and non-standard tracks. They come standard with extended service brakes and e-coated brake shoes.

The Traxium landing gear is available in the Pro50 model for 50K applications, adaptable for various shoe configurations, handles, and inside and outside mounts. Trax says it exceeds TTMA/AAR test standards, while still being among the lightest available. Standard features include specially formulated grease, forged steel gears, and extended-maintenance grease-containment systems. A 60K unit will be available this summer.

"We are keenly aware of the challenges facing the fleets and owner/operators in today’s market, says Steve Miller, vice president, trailer and suspension engineering. "Durability and lowest cost of ownership are the credo of our engineering team."