German braking system manufacturer Knorr-Bremse is investing €80m to construct a new test and development centre in Munich, which can be used for both rail and commercial vehicles.
The investment forms a part of the company’s €500m programme to expand, modernise and maintain its production and development sites.
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Knorr-Bremse executive board chairman Michael Buscher said: "By renewing production facilities and expanding innovative research and development capacity in our global growth markets, we are increasing our efficiency and strengthening our innovative capabilities.
"This will enable us to respond to the growing pressure of costs and supply our customers with extremely competitive systems."
Spread over an area of around 17,000m², the new centre will combine the testing and development functions of the company’s two divisions, rail and commercial vehicle systems.
The centre will comprise 100 rigs for technical testing and quality assurance of components for braking systems and their subsystems.
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By GlobalDataIt will also have four friction dynamometres, which are used to simulate emergency braking in order to test commercial vehicle brake discs’ resistance to distortion and cracking under extreme conditions.
The 350 test engineers employed at the centre will use test rigs to simulate the braking behaviour of entire freight trains with up to 100 cars, as well as reproducing different technical standards for brakes in Western Europe, the US and Russia.
Image: Officials during the groundbreaking ceremony of Knorr-Bremse’s new test and development center. Photo: courtesy of Knorr-Bremse AG.
