Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems LLC, a unit of Knorr-Bremse Group, and Dana Corp. have agreed to form a North American joint venture focused on commercial vehicle foundation brake components and technologies. At press time, the joint venture was expected to close on June 30.

According to executives with the two partners, the joint venture will operate as a separate company, Bendix Spicer Foundation Brake LLC, under the management of Bendix and Dana. It will marry Bendix's wheel-end business with Dana's foundation brake business. Both companies said they will "contribute product and technology as well as manufacturing and distribution leadership."

While neither Bendix nor Dana mentioned how the joint venture will market its products, a Roadranger spokesman told Drivers the marketing operation "will continue to represent foundation brake products for the new venture."

Created by an agreement signed in 1998, Roadranger is a joint initiative between Dana and Eaton as well as other partners to market commercial vehicle components. Among the other partners is Bendix, whose anti-lock brakes and traction control systems are already being marketed by Roadranger.

Industry analyst Martin Labbe told Drivers that there is not enough information on the fledgling company to comment on its prospects. “Without more detail on who’s going to control the marketing, who’s going to control the product design, it’s really difficult to tell.”

As to how this deal might impact the existing Dana-Eaton Roadranger marketing agreement, Labbe noted that, “Usually most joint ventures are within arm’s length of other joint ventures, but this is just speculation.”