German association VDI has produced a new engine repair standard. Volker Schittenhelm spells out how this affects FIRM – and asks for members’ ideas to bring to the European Reman Council.
VDI standard on engine remanufacturing
VDI, the association of German engineers, has more than 2,000 standards which range from securing loads on road vehicles to testing optical fibres, through to monitoring the consequences of genetically-modified organisms. These standards play a very important role as pioneers for international standardization: accessible for all market participants, they create savings by controlling costs, as well as allowing technical knowledge to spread faster. Standards facilitate contractual arrangements, commercial transactions and serve to reduce technical trade barriers. VDI has now produced a standard – called VDI-4084 - covering the repair and remanufacturing of combustion engines, in co-operation with VMI (the German association of engine remanufacturers) as well as companies such as Hyundai and GM. VDI-4084 specifies terminologies, describes processes and outlines criteria that must be followed during engine remanufacturing. The standard brings a lot of transparency and will help market stakeholders do business and avoid legal uncertainty. An English translation will be available mid-2018. This new VDI standard will help to promote our industry, its competencies and environmental benefits. Now it is time for FIRM and other automotive remanufacturing associations and working groups to establish a general remanufacturing standard for automotive products in order to specify the remanufacturing processes of security-relevant products like antilock braking systems. Please contact info@vmi-ev.de or communication@firm-org.eu for more details.
