TMD Friction : Fighting the Fakes

Having counterfeits made of your products and brands is a strange kind of compliment, the cost to set up manufacturing and engineering to make a fake product only makes sense when the product has both premium quality and value, and a market leading brand identity.

Historically the premium products and brands of TMD Friction have been clear targets of copy cat producers, but today dealing with counterfeit has become an infrequent activity, as a direct result of the effective measures and

controls placed on all TMD Friction manufacturing and product lines. Every friction product supplied by TMD Friction is manufactured inside the company, from one of the 10 state of the art factories spread across the globe. Having operations on this scale, with a million individual pieces of brake friction rolling off the production lines every day, does not deter TMD Friction from operating strict common control processes and unique anti-counterfeit measures in all plants.

All TMD Friction products have unique part and manufacturing batch information, the packaging specification is almost impossible to replicate and TMD Friction employs anti-counterfeit security seals that include holographic technology. At Automechanika 2010 TMD revealed a new security seal which incorporates 5 different anti-counterfeit technologies, some of which have never been previously used in the automotive sector.

In the past occasional counterfeit activity in the Aftermarket involving a product packaged under one of the flagship TMD Brands has been rapidly identified and immediate actions taken. With worldwide trademark protection on all brands TMD Friction has always made a strong retaliation to any fake products, tracing these inferior products back to source and working with local governments and legal teams to shut down the operations and prevent further distribution.

However despite all this built in protection, and an aggressive stance on fake products, counterfeits do still occur, both of aftermarket and original equipment products. TMD Friction works hand in hand with it’s customers to protect against counterfeiting, supplying technical information and product test results to clearly illustrate the dangers in using inferior brake parts and components. At Automechanika 2010 TMD Friction also launched a new web platform, providing clear advice on how to identify fake products, presenting samples of previous counterfeit products compared to the original product and an open forum inviting customers and consumers worldwide to register any concerns over fake brake components.

TMD has some simple rules for end-users (both trade & retail) that apply to all levels of the market and to all product groups:

• If a product carries a brand name spelled differently or has the wrong style or different logos don’t buy it, look at the website for the brands and consult an authorised distributor
• If a product is priced significantly lower than usual and is out of line with comparative brands
• If it’s too good to be true, it probably isn't, check the product in detail
• If a branded product is presented in plain packaging, or packaging with a different brand check the box contents and the product carefully, without a clear explanation from the parts distributor don’t buy the product and demand only official packaging
• As a general rule when purchasing such safety critical items as brake friction, if you have any doubt contact the manufacturer directly or your local authorised distributor / main dealer.

For more information on TMD products please call them on 01274 854000

Sovereign Rotating Machines Under The Spotlight

Rotating electrics (or rotating machines as they are now more commonly called) have always been an important sales area within the independent aftermarket, and, w

ith recent developments in start/stop technology they will only increase in importance in the future.

The ‘good old days’

However, like so many other product groups, this is no longer a simple market where a few part numbers fit a host of applications. Old hands such as myself look back to those halcyon days when a couple of Lucas ACR’s (left and right hand although you could always swivel the bracket if you were out of stock of one or the other) together with a few Bosch and Valeo references for imported vehicles would cover the majority of the vehicle parc’s alternator requirements. Where there were a couple

of references listed for a particular vehicle or model range it was usually just the output that varied so stocking the highest rated saved carrying three or four extra references.

Similarly starter motors were covered by a dozen or so popular references with the same starter being shared by several different models within a vehicle manufacturers range.

The market today

Step forward twenty years and the market has changed dramatically with the ‘part number explosion’ making this a complex and undoubtedly technical market sector.

There are now multiple units which can be fitted as original equipment to a single model, and they are very often non-interchangeable. On top of this the loads placed upon both starters and alternators, which are often a fraction of the size they used to be, have greatly increased with the universal use of electronic systems in vehicle technology.

In short, what was once a fairly simple, easy-to-service market is now full of complications and pitfalls. So what’s the answer?

The right supplier

Today, more than ever before, it’s essential to have the right supplier for your rotating electrics.

A supplier who supplies consistently high quality units with excellent availability, has a high technical knowledge, offers full technical support and can react quickly in supplying one-off specials for those ‘oddball’ units that are often needed.

CAAR members looking for all of these qualities are increasingly turning to Sovereign, the Bognor Regis based specialists who have been producing high quality rotating machines for the past 15 years.

Massive Expansion

Back in 2007, Sovereign took the decision to double their product range making it one of, if not the, most comprehensive range of rotating machines available within the independent aftermarket.

Today they have some 2,500 part numbers available, split roughly 50/50 between starters and alternators. Given that the top 150 units cover almost 75 per cent of sales, offering well over 2,000 other units is an incredible commitment to being a ‘one-stop’ , single choice supplier.

Quality, Quality, Quality!

Of course you can have the best range in the world but if the quality of that range is not 100 per cent right then customers will simply not buy.

This is where Sovereign really score. Our recent visit to their 30,000 sq. ft. manufacturing plant (now expanded with the acquisition of a large, neighbouring unit) showed us just how much emphasis is put on the quality of the products they supply.

Remanufacturing is a dirty and labour intensive business but Sovereign have developed systems which ensure that each and every unit supplied by the company meets exacting standards for both performance and appearance. From the moment the old-core arrives in stillages and is identified to the final testing procedures before the unit is packed in the new, high-quality Sovereign box, every unit has a computer and paper trail that ensures every single one is remanufactured to consistently high standards that meet the OE specification.

Every unit is fully stripped, cleaned and checked before the remanufacturing process can begin and the company is ruthless in scrapping any parts that don’t meet their exacting standards.

Wearing parts such as bushes, bearings and brushes are automatically replaced whilst items such as solenoids and starter drives are fully stripped and either replaced or rebuilt with OE quality components.

New or Remanufactured?

It may surprise members to find out that almost 50 per cent of all units supplied within a Sovereign box are brand new!

The company has built relationships with factories in the far east who produce units to their exacting specifications. Not only are the units batch tested when they arrive in Bognor, they also have an engineer on-site who ensures that these quality levels are maintained at all times.

One slight penalty of offering both new and remanufactured units in the same range is the appearance, as Sovereign MD Richard Welland explained.

“We have always produced top quality units but, since we began using new units as well, we have to ensure that they not only perform like new but they also look like new.”

In order to achieve this they have invested heavily in new cleaning and painting systems to enhance the appearance of the remanufactured units to the point where they are virtually indistinguishable from new. In addition to this all of the units are now shrink-wrapped before being boxed to ensure vulnerable parts are protected from damage and the appearance of the units remains immaculate whilst on the shelf.

Testing Times

Every new unit supplied by Sovereign comes with an individual, computerised test certificate and, with the investment of tens of thousands of pounds in new test equipment, so will all of the remanufactured units.

Every single unit that leaves the Sovereign factory has been individually tested but, previously, this testing has been carried out manually on an industry-standard test bench. Whilst this is effective it requires operator experience and a set routine. The new computerised test machines take away any chance of operator error and provide a totally automated test procedure which mirrors that applied to the brand-new units.

Summing Up

We could carry on by telling you about the excellent warranty system and the next-day delivery service as well as the three-day turnaround on special units ,the standard £15 surcharge on most fast-moving units and the stock cleanse facility that is available.

And we haven’t even touched on their other products such as ignition leads and coils and clutch pulleys!

However we just don’t have the space so why not give Sovereign a call on 01243 833420 to find out why they really do have ‘pride in everything they do’!