Preh GmbH, Bad Neustadt an der Saale, Germany, has developed the climate control system for Ford F-250 and F-350 pickup trucks. “After having developed the climate control system and climate control software for the F-150 in our very first order from Ford, we now have the opportunity to follow up with two models in the Super Duty series,” said Nick Lontscharitsch, president of Preh, Inc. in Novi, Michigan.
Like the current climate controls for the F-150, the control system for the “big brothers” F-250 and F-350 also comes from the Preh plant in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico.
For the Super Duty series, engineers employed a proven Preh design principle that keeps the housing in the front of the climate control system dustproof. Penetration of liquids into the control unit is also prevented by the unique design of the button guides. Preh also uses optical encoder technology in the rotary knobs in the fully automatic version of the control system. A unique aspect of this design is that separate standard encoder components are not used. Instead, the encoders are integrated directly into the circuit board. This allows the feel of the rotary knobs on the Super Duty vehicles to be tailored exactly to customer requirements, fully independent of functional parts that would otherwise interfere with tactile feedback.
“We are proud of the fact that, in the case of the F-250 and F-350, Ford once again turned to Preh’s competence in sophisticated climate control systems. An intelligent assembly concept allows us to manufacture the control system in eight different versions on a single assembly line in our Mexican facility.”
