Germany-based
Schaeffler is investing around 80 million euros in a new central laboratory complex in Herzogenaurach, as part of the company’s ‘Roadmap 2025’ strategy announced last year.
The investment is aimed at securing the Schaeffler Group’s “competitiveness and ability to realise future opportunities”, as well as strengthening the position of its Herzogenaurach campus as a centre of technological excellence.
The complex, currently in the detailed planning phase, is scheduled for completion in 2023 and will be home to a cross-divisional central laboratory complex that will span around 15,000m
2 of floor space. This will house 15 laboratories and more than 360 employees.
The new laboratory facility will ‘centralise and consolidate the Schaeffler Group’s core competencies and capabilities’ in key areas of: technology, including measurement, testing and calibration systems; materials research and design; electrochemistry; and optimisation of product lifespan, strength, and reliability.
It will also house a new electronics laboratory. The company’s aims in consolidating all these activities under one roof include improving the transfer of knowledge and technology between its divisions and enhancing performance through shared use of resources.
Uwe Wagner, Schaeffler AG’s chief research and development officer, said: “The idea of the new central laboratory complex is to make key technologies available on an integrated, cross-divisional basis so that we can, for example, develop products for sustainable and carbon-neutral mobility and energy ecosystems.
“To develop solutions for ‘megatrends’ such as carbon neutrality, next-generation mobility, and automation, we also need to boost our ability to rapidly develop our core competencies across a wide range of disciplines, from materials and surface technology to electrochemistry, electronics, and digitalisation. The new central laboratory complex will provide the ideal springboard for this.”
The new facility is an important part of the
Roadmap 2025 strategy, which was announced last November and details how the Schaeffler Group will ‘sustainably strengthen’ its future readiness and competitive position.
Klaus Rosenfeld, Schaeffler AG’s CEO, said: “The central laboratory complex will secure high-tech jobs in key growth areas. It will also add value to Herzogenaurach and the surrounding region in the eyes of customers and employees and underscores our commitment to Germany as a business location.”