Under an agreement announced today, Ricardo will assist Anhui Xingrui Gear Company on a detailed design review and technology assessment, with the aim of helping the Chinese Tier 1 manufacturer to improve the efficiency and shift quality of its transmission products.
Formed in 1966, Xingrui is a successful manufacturer of transmissions for the Chinese auto industry. A wholly owned subsidiary of Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group Co Ltd (JAC) – and also located in Anhui province – the company provides products both for its parent company and for other leading Chinese automotive brands, including Chery, Foton, Huatai and Heli.
Xingrui and JAC are keen to improve the quality, performance and efficiency of their products and have already worked with Ricardo on a range of projects. Most recently, Ricardo has conducted a shift quality assessment of two Xingrui transmissions using the Ricardo Gear Shift Quality Assurance (GSQA) system, as well as carrying out NVH assessments. In both cases the performance of the Xingrui transmissions was compared in detail with that of two commercially available competitor benchmark products.
Following the successful conclusion of this project, the contract announced today will see Ricardo work with Xingrui on a detailed design review of the company’s current 6-speed transmission product. Assessments will be made of a range of design and material changes aimed at improving the torque capacity, NVH performance and shift quality of this product. In addition to improving the breed of Xingrui products and helping the company move closer to world-class quality and performance levels, Ricardo will also aim to transfer skills and technologies to Xingrui engineers, helping the company to improve its engineering and development capability for future new product programmes.
“We’re extremely pleased to be working with the JAC group on transmission design and engineering through the company’s Xingrui subsidiary, as well as with the parent company on engine technology,” said Ricardo Asia president Gary Tan. “As ever, the Ricardo approach is characterized by providing customers with the best available technology and expertise appropriate to their product development needs, while also offering our assistance in the form of training and technology transfer. We look forward to working with Xingrui and the wider JAC group to improve the efficiency, performance and quality of their automotive products.”
Xingrui general manager Tao Cheng added: “We welcome the opportunity to extend our collaboration with Ricardo on transmission engineering. Xingrui is very proud of its transmission products and we continually seek to improve them for the benefit of our customers. Through our collaboration with Ricardo we hope to improve our current 6-speed transmission while also enabling our engineers to learn new skills and acquire new technologies from their Ricardo colleagues.”
