DSTRAC Axles is a factory that is part of a company with more than 30 years of experience in the production of agricultural equipment and hydraulic oil systems. It was founded in the mid-1990s by Mr. Silvio Antônio Nardi (deceased in 2019) descended from Italians who emigrated decades ago from the northern region of Italy to the southern region of Brazil, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. Initially around 1995, it specialized in repairing agricultural machinery in a small workshop and later started manufacturing agricultural hydraulic pumps.
The company grew, and Mr. Silvio A.Nardi was passed on to the next generation, the 3 sons who today run the company along with Mrs. Wilma Formariz Nardi. The Nardi Group specialized during these years in the production of hydraulic oil components such as pumps, controls, valves, cylinders and hydraulic oil projects in several areas and in the maintenance of equipment, from road systems, industrial to agricultural systems. In the 2010s, a partnership was signed with the German company Bosch Rexroth, to supply hydrostatic transmission systems, thus starting the manufacture of agricultural axles for harvesters, officially starting the new company.
However, since the 1990s, businessman Mr. Silvio Antônio Nardi and his children, passionate about Off-Road events, already participated with their Jeep Willys 1951 and after a few years with the needs of the off-road market on the rise, he decided to create products for the Willys line, the first invention being an electric differential lock and later a portal box for the original old Willys shaft.
The new company really entered and gained market share by launching its first differential in mid-2014, a 44/60 hybrid for Jeep Willys. Since then, the brand has launched more than 50 products and dominated the Brazilian off-road market. Today it has a modern factory with solid infrastructure that continuously invests in new processes and manufacturing technologies, such as casting of steel parts by “lost wax melting”, low temperature forging, heat treatment processes by plasma nitriding, verification of failures by "magnaflux" and other state-of-the-art processes. DSTRAC has reputable and certified national suppliers in the automotive area for components such as castings, forgings, heat treatment, among others.
The Company currently has an area of 1,800 m2 in the assembly unit and another 2,500 m2 in the machining unit, with 50 employees and an engineering team of 9 mechanical engineers, divided between projects in the automotive and agricultural areas. In addition to leading the domestic market in off-road differential axles and also leading the manufacture of 4×4 hydro axles for harvesters, DSTRAC is currently present in several countries, with exports to the United States, Europe, South America and Australia. It stands out nationally for years in a row as champion in several RockCrawling/Extreme competitions and in the main national off-road events.