British gearbox innovator ZeroShift Ltd, the company that announced it hadachieved zero millisecond shifting in July 2003, will begin manufacture ofits aftermarket transmissions and transmission components in the UK.ZeroShift Ltd has formed an alliance with Ketlon Ltd (Kent, UK).
ZeroShift and Ketlon have been working together since mid-2003 to combine final prototyping stages and production preparation, in order to expedite early market entry. Ketlon will re-manufacture exchange manual transmissions for the aftermarket, starting with the 5-speed Tremec T5 (nee Borg Warner T5) later this year, followed by the 6-speed Tremec T56.
ZeroShift Managing Director, Phil James: "ZeroShift is a young company, so the means by which we might supply the demand we have provoked has been the subject of some conjecture. Teaming up with Ketlon, an established, sophisticated Tier 2 component manufacturer, is a key part of our solution. Ketlon¹s senior managers are progressive in their thinking and, as a privately-owned British company ourselves, Ketlon¹s private British ownership appealed to us. Ketlon¹s ambitions and philosophies are an excellent match with those of ZeroShift."
Ketlon Managing Director, Paul Cahill: "This is an unprecedented opportunity in our industry. Working with ZeroShift through their development programme has enabled us to understand their technology and contribute our expertise on manufacturing techniques at the optimum time. We are proud to be producing such an exciting product in Britain."
By forming an alliance with Ketlon, ZeroShift is able to leverage Ketlon¹ssignificant experience of precision engineering at mass-production levels at an early stage. The special, low-volume cells that Ketlon is creating formaking aftermarket ZeroShift transmissions will enable a smooth ramp-up, or transition, from being a "transmission re-manufacturer" to conventional Tier 2 supply.
Ketlon will primarily be producing the ZeroShift mechanisms that replacesynchromesh components, but with the capability to supply all of the gearbox internals to ZeroShift¹s Tier 1 customers - or for ZeroShift to evolve as a Tier 1 transmission manufacturer.
James: "In the summer of 2002, we set out to build gearboxes and, just twoyears later, that¹s exactly what we are doing. In the immediate term, wewill be supplying aftermarket transmissions that are based on existingsynchromesh manuals. With Ketlon we will, in parallel, evolve into a Tier 2 position manufacturing and supplying Œsuper synchros¹ into existing Tier 1/VM supply chains. Alongside the transmission internals theplatform-specific ZeroShift transmission controller (FlatLiner) requires a direct relationship with a VM. It is conceivable that ZeroShift may, via JVs or acquisitions, become a Tier 1 transmission supplier."
