Knorr-Bremse TruckServices: a stable cycle and highly efficient workshops.

“Future Ready Aftermarket. Products & Services for today. Solutions for tomorrow.” That’s the motto at Knorr-Bremse TruckServices. Besides the trucks on the road, it also applies to workshop efficiency and the circular economy. At Knorr-Bremse TruckServices, the circular economy involves more than just recycling and reducing raw material use. The remanufacturing plant in Liberec, Czech Republic, shows just how smoothly the product and material cycle can run. Meanwhile, upgraded Knorr-Bremse Diagnostics software and the multi-brand diagnostics Jaltest boost efficiency, enabling more targeted resource use in the workshop. Experts from Knorr-Bremse TruckServices discuss the multiple lives of products, multi-brand diagnostics, and returnable cardboard packaging.

“Our mission is to provide the market with solutions to increase road safety and efficiency. This applies in particular to workshops and vehicle fleets. We continuously strive to help multi-brand workshops become even more efficient. For fleet operators, the goal is to put the most economically advantageous vehicle on the road at any given time and to make the vehicle's condition as transparent as possible. The circular economy is both a strategic goal and the foundation for value-appropriate repairs,” explains Florian Schlüter, Director Global Aftermarket Product Management. To maximize the benefits of the circular economy, Knorr-Bremse TruckServices focuses on two main points: the product itself and all services offered throughout the product lifecycle.

Bettina Tokarski, Thomas Meyer (front left), and Florian Schlüter (front right) share a common goal: optimizing the circular economy and boosting efficiency for workshops and fleets.

Service: workshop concepts are crucial

Pivotal to the service concept and the circular economy at Knorr-Bremse TruckServices are the Alltrucks partner workshops and the Expert Network workshops. The workshops decide whether to repair, remanufacture, or use new products for a given job. “To enable workshops to use our portfolio efficiently, we make sure they have the highest level of technical expertise, for instance by offering a variety of training programs and providing online technical documentation. In addition, mechanics receive immediate assistance via our technical hotline in case of any issue that impedes the repair process. To complement our offering and maximize efficiency, we equip workshops with specialized tools and multi-brand diagnostic software,” says Florian Schlüter.

Repair kit: rapid assistance for workshops and operators

With the share of mechatronic parts in vehicles growing and digital services on the rise, Knorr-Bremse TruckServices offers repair kits in addition to spare parts. These kits allow workshops or operators to extend the lifecycle of products at reasonable costs, avoiding premature scrapping or remanufacturing. Knorr-Bremse always ensures that the repair kits meet market-specific customer needs.

Central to the service concept and circular economy of Knorr-Bremse TruckServices are the Alltrucks partner workshops and the workshops in the Expert Network. These facilities determine whether to repair, remanufacture, or replace with a new product.

Multisystem diagnostics: an intuitive solution

The Jaltest multi-brand and multisystem diagnostic tool can perform advanced diagnostic and maintenance tasks on vehicles in a simple and intuitive manner. Bettina Tokarski, Teamlead Aftermarket Product Portfolio Management & Marketing, outlines the benefits: “Independent workshops can handle the majority of jobs with a single diagnostic tool. We at Knorr-Bremse TruckServices will also reach operators of very old vehicles with this diagnostic solution, providing them with products until the end of the vehicle lifecycle.” The truck therefore remains on the road, possibly with a repaired control unit. Going forward, workshops will be able to obtain this quickly and easily via the ESB REMAN ECU repair service offered by Jaltest and Knorr-Bremse TruckServices. From 2025, Knorr-Bremse TruckServices is offering ECU repair for over 2,500 different control units from more than 30 OEs and Tier 1 suppliers as a service for dealers and workshops. The defective ECU can then be sent in via express service, repaired and returned to the workshop within 36 hours (depending on the location). This avoids electronic waste, which has a major impact on the environmental and CO2 balance due to metals such as nickel, copper or gold.

Remote diagnostics: vehicle maintenance on the road

In 2024, Knorr-Bremse TruckServices switched from its previous NEO diagnostic software to Knorr-Bremse Diagnostics, which can be operated within the well-known multi-brand diagnostic system Jaltest. At the same time, Knorr-Bremse TruckServices is driving other developments, initiatives and partnerships to expand the scope of remote diagnostics (condition monitoring) services and deliver progress towards predictive maintenance to the market. “The resulting flexible maintenance intervals and predictive maintenance planning improve efficiency in the workshop enormously. The fleet manager can respond ahead of time, for instance by combining an upcoming service in three weeks with the current workshop visit, keeping the vehicle on the road for longer,” reports Bettina Tokarski.

With Jaltest Diagnostics, TruckServices is expanding its remote diagnostics capabilities (Condition Monitoring) and intensifying developments toward predictive maintenance.

Remanufacturing: value chain of the highest quality

Choosing a professionally remanufactured product represents one of the highest value chains in the circular economy. Thomas Meyer, responsible for remanufacturing, describes the three major benefits: “Firstly, raw materials are directly reintroduced into the cycle. Secondly, existing Knorr-Bremse products are given a second life via the EconX® Genuine Remanufactured brand. And thirdly, these products extend the lifecycle of older trucks.”

Before the first life of any product, the original equipment is developed. In this phase at Knorr-Bremse, the EcoDesign approach lays the foundations for product repairability and recyclability. This ecological product design also forms the basis for Knorr-Bremse's EconX® brand, which was established in 2016 and now includes over 500 different remanufactured products. They meet the same safety standards as new parts and include: calipers for disc brakes, compressors, EBS modules and electronic clutch actuators. While a disc brake only has one extra life for safety reasons, compressors have up to three.

The heart of European remanufacturing beats in the Czech plant in Liberec.

Employees here handle, inspect and sort 160,000 old products every year. Products in a poor state are sent directly to raw material recycling, while those in good condition are sent for cleaning. The remaining products are broken down into individual components and assembled into a new EconX® product – they cannot be built into any original product. The scrap generated in the process is passed on intact to the recyclers, saving valuable raw materials and energy. To reduce scrap, the remanufacturing process is continuously improved and optimized for efficiency. Together with the Fraunhofer Institute, for instance, Knorr-Bremse has developed a series-ready cleaning system that has increased the regeneration rate in the industrial reprocessing of control units in Liberec. “Only an original equipment supplier like Knorr-Bremse can provide such professional product reconditioning,” says Thomas Meyer, describing the benefits for operators: “The more cost-effective EconX® products are ideal for value-appropriate repairs of vehicles with a shorter remaining lifespan. The older the truck, the more it makes sense in terms of total cost of ownership to install a reconditioned product.”

Info

Remanufacturing: good for development

Knorr-Bremse, applying its EcoDesign approach, considers the separability of its individual components from as early as the product development stage. In doing so, Knorr-Bremse acts ahead of forthcoming legislation, the European Ecodesign Directive, and the right to repair. Remanufacturing also drives product innovation in the Commercial Vehicle Systems division, as the division’s developers get to find out a great deal about product behaviors during long-term usage in the field. Using a remanufacturing road map and working on a project basis, Knorr-Bremse TruckServices tracks the products that will likely enter the independent aftermarket in the foreseeable future. First, the spare parts for a product need to be available, with remanufacturing products seeing greater demand after about six years. The technology – whether it is a component for a combustion engine or an electric motor – is of secondary importance.

Ecological and economic value

Knorr-Bremse TruckServices is well prepared for increasing demands from operators to prove material and CO2 savings with EconX® products, as Thomas Meyer explains: “We can demonstrate the CO2 reduction per part using our lifecycle assessments. For example, the production of an EconX® SN7 caliper with used components saves up to 44.9 kg of CO2 equivalent emissions.” The ecological benefits of industrial remanufacturing stack up: In 2023, Knorr-Bremse saved 3,648 metric tons of CO2, 1,220 metric tons of material and 18.98 MWh of energy through remanufacturing in Europe. Moreover, remanufacturing generates economic value for Knorr-Bremse. Aftermarket sales of reconditioned products (rail and truck), including labor and spare parts, amounted to around 11% of group sales in 2022.

Impressions from the remanufacturing plant in Liberec

Packaging: now also returnable

Bettina Tokarski knows how returnable packaging supports the reliable cycle of remanufactured products: “Our EconX® products have special packaging that will always travel at least two ways – to the customer and back. That’s because we need to get the used products back, a disc brake for example, so we can recondition them wherever possible.” And there is a strong incentive for customers to send them back, as Knorr-Bremse TruckServices puts a deposit on the used parts and also rewards dealers and workshops in the Expert Network partner program for reusing the packaging in the return process. Reusable packaging, like the plastic boxes used in production, is not an option in this case.

Documentation: digitized and customer-friendly

Knorr-Bremse TruckServices has gone digital with sales and service documentation, a transparent and customer-friendly approach that saves heaps of paper. Digital documentation for workshops includes product catalogs and comprehensive service manuals, such as those for brake system repairs. Digital manuals with their virtual descriptions bring clear advantages: animations and repair instructions make the work easier for technicians in the workshops.

Everyone benefits from the circular economy: seasoned experts and talented new recruits in the workshop, younger and older existing vehicles and, of course, the environment and the recycling business.

Back to overview