GERMANY: The Knorr-Bremse Group's Development Centre in München was officially opened with a ceremony on June 23. The €90m facility is ‘the biggest single investment in the history of Knorr-Bremse and as such is a clear statement of our belief in Bayern as a technology hub’, said Chairman Klaus Deller at the celebrations. ‘From here our innovations will drive forward the development of rail and road transport all over the world.’
There is a total floor space of 17 000 m2 across five levels, with workplaces for 350 engineers and technicians from the Rail Vehicle and Commercial Vehicle divisions.
The 100 test rigs include the Advanced Test Laboratory for Adhesion-based Systems, a 15 m high device weighing 760 tonnes which can simulate wheelsets or bogies travelling at speeds up to 350 km/h on all gauges and in a range of weather conditions. The UZP universal train test rig can simulate the braking of trains more than 3 km long with up to 208 wagons, using a main air pipe configured in a giant spiral.
‘What is important is not so much the knowledge of the individual disciplines but rather the creation of a space for inter-disciplinary exchange and networking between the various experts’, said Prof Dr Gunter Henn, Chairman of Architekturbüro Henn which designed the facility.
