TRW Gets It Right Again – Business To Remanufacture RHD Steering Racks In UK

TRW’s dedicated UK facility in Wales is to put its 25 years of remanufacturing experience to good use as it starts to remanufacture OE quality right hand drive steering racks for the first time.

“This is big news for our UK customers,” said Jon Sellars, UK marketing manager. We saw a gap in the market for a high end, quality product, remanufactured to the same stringent quality specifications as new – and have filled it.

“It makes perfect sense to remanufacture such a heavy component in the market where it will be sold and used,” Jon continued. “Being a labour intensive part to replace the last thing our customers want is to fit a faulty product and have the vehicle returned to their workshop. And from the driver’s point of view, they have the right to demand a safety critical part such as a steering rack to be tested to OE standards. At TRW, we don’t believe you can put a price on the peace of mind that comes as standard with our premium quality components.” 

All remanufactured racks will undergo the same stringent quality tests as new product, including:

• 100 per cent crack detection
• 100 per cent hydraulic performance test and pneumatic decay for both rack bar and pinion teeth to OE specs
• 100 per cent replacement of rubber components with matching OE parts. For example, the bellows are designed for the specific rack instead of following a generic design pattern.

Fast Facts

• TRW advocates Single Piece Flow (SPF) – all the parts are put back into the same assembly, which doesn’t happen during batch production.
  
• SPF in turn utilises Production Cells. This achieves optimum yield as operators follow the assembly through the whole process.

Housings

• All housings are thoroughly cleaned to eliminate particle contamination – one of the biggest problems with power steering racks
  
• Housing threads are then cleaned and re-tapped and axial rods are re-set to the correct torque values
  
• Stringent acceptance criteria dictates that housings be scrapped if there is any sign of internal wear grooves
  
• The rack teeth are 100 per cent checked along with the rack bar runout.
  
• Our OE assembly procedures dictate that protective sleeves will be used to re-assemble the rack into the housing, which protects the seal
  
• Finally, TRW’s rack bars are not ‘linished’, but are polished using a specially developed non-abrasive wheel re-introducing an OE specification surface.