for demanding production environments. Visitors had an opportunity to see a working deep-hole drilling demonstration at the Sunnen booth. The demonstration highlighted Sunnen’ s recentlyannounced strategic alliance with TIBO Tiefbohrtechnik GmbH and showcases deep-hole drilling and rifling capabilities that complement Sunnen’ s established honing and bore-finishing expertise.
Alongside the machinery demonstrations, attendees explored Sunnen’ s precision tooling and gaging portfolio, solutions developed to help manufacturers pursue tighter tolerances, improved surface finishes and repeatable, reliable processes.
UC’ s Air Brake Centre and appointments
n It’ s with great pleasure that Universal Components introduces a new addition to its team. In its new Air Brake Centre, Barry Cartwright will be joining the ranks to provide immediate access to an air brake specialist. Alongside Neil Castle, and his decades of air brake expertise, the team is now fully operational.
‘ Barry Cartwright is a major acquisition for UC and someone I’ ve been chasing for quite a while now. He fits into our strategic plans and has the credentials, experience and character necessary to provide excellent service to our customers through technical excellence and industry knowledge,’ says UC’ s Managing Director.
Barry started out at Fleet Parts in 1986 at the tender age of 16, first working in the warehouse and workshop, then becoming a member of the sales office, until he eventually progressed to the position of Area Sales Manager.
Around 2003, he left Fleet Parts and moved on to European Braking Systems as UK Sales Manager. In small companies, people often take up several roles at once and he also became Sales Office Manager, Logistics Manager and Purchasing Manager. With time, his interests focused more on the technical aspect of the business and he became the Sales and Technical Manager of the company, his experience being widely applied within the group’ s various departments.
He now joins UC with over 40 years of warehouse, sales and technical experience, all of which is now at UC’ s disposal.
Neil’ s career in air braking also began at the age of 16, when he joined Fleet Parts in Warrington( the same company Barry started with), the leading air brake specialist in the UK. For 15 years, he remanufactured various types of air brake valves and developed his
technical expertise, learning everything about how these parts work from the inside out.
In 2000, he became the first employee of European Braking Systems, taking on roles of Office Manager and Purchasing Manager while applying his valve knowledge to convert and test components in the workshop.
He left in 2003 and became Sales and Purchasing Director of New World Air Brake, where he helped to create an international clientele and supplier network and also develop the brand which became synonymous with air brakes. In addition, he created and put into operation, a parts recognition and cross-reference website in 20 languages, which became widely used by the worldwide air brake specialists.
Neil recently joined Universal Components in 2025, bringing with him 40 years of knowledge to support our new air brake programme. Moreover, he is very pleased to meet a new colleague in our company,‘ With the recent acquisition of Barry from EBS, UC has gained one of the most knowledgeable specialists in the whole industry. Barry is second to none with his technical knowledge and is looking forward to getting vehicles back on the road, using his skills to identify parts.’
With Barry in the UC team, it is are now making its air brake offering really solid – both in domestic and export markets. Whatever part of the world you are situated in, its Air Brake Centre now gives you immediate contact with the company’ s technical knowledge.
Autumn / Winter 2026 The Engine Rebuilder 15