Knorr-Bremse Group officially opened a new Development Center in Munich, a EUR 90 million investment. The aim is to develop braking solutions that offer customers greater product and operational safety, enable them to comply with strict regulations, reduce the total cost of ownership, and open up opportunities to embrace new business models.
Knorr-Bremse has created a basis for developing systems that generate added value for its customers. The state-of-the-art test rigs and equipment enable technical ideas for rail and commercial vehicles to be rapidly validated and transformed into products for the customer, significantly reducing time to market.
The aim is to develop the next generation of braking systems for rail and commercial vehicles in response to future requirements. In the rail division, for example, the Knorr-Bremse development engineers are currently working on innovative solutions that enable precise, low-wear braking of trains irrespective of their load or the weather conditions. This will enable trains to operate more punctually and at shorter intervals.
In the commercial vehicle division, a new generation of Knorr-Bremse brake control systems is being designed to cope with complex control functions related to the increased use of driver assistance systems and automation of vehicle drive functions as a further step towards driverless vehicles. Intelligent networking of the brake control systems with other subsystems such as the steering enables Knorr-Bremse to offer further automated functions such as active lane control (hitherto confined to automobiles) and also new truck-specific functions such as platooning – trucks travelling close behind each other in automatically controlled convoys – or automated yard maneuvering.
“Knorr-Bremse’s new Development Center is futuristic in many respects. Its sophisticated technical infrastructure brings together engineers and technicians from both divisions – Rail Vehicle Systems and Commercial Vehicle Systems. Such a concentration of brake-related expertise generates synergies and increased added value for our customers,” said Klaus Deller, Chairman of the Executive Board of Knorr-Bremse AG.
Share on:
