Schaeffler CEO Klaus Rosenfeld. (picture alliance / dpa)
Schaeffler, the automotive and industrial supplier based in Franconia, a region in the western German state of Bavaria, is building a new central laboratory at its headquarters in Herzogenaurach at a cost of 80 million euros. The new laboratory building will provide space for around 400 employees and be completed by 2023, company CEO Klaus Rosenfeld said on Monday. "When you process material, you have to understand very well how it works," Rosenfeld told dpa. "We have to form metals with the greatest precision. To do that, we need measurement technology that is of the highest quality. That is one of the pillars of this lab," he said.
The investment is one of the building blocks of a restructuring program at Schaeffler that includes the closure of several locations and the reduction of about 4,400 of the company's total workforce of about 90,000 worldwide, primarily in Germany. Discussions with the employees' side on the implementation of the plan are proceeding constructively, Rosenfeld said. However, they had not yet been concluded. The IG Metall union had announced resistance to Schaeffler's plans and tried to prevent the closure of individual locations.
Among other things, the new central laboratory is to be used to drive forward the future issues of sustainability and e-mobility. The components installed in e-motors require very precise measurement technology, he said. "E-motors are also nothing more than precision mechanical components - very thin layers of metal, stacked x times on top of each other," said Andreas Schick, Schaeffler's member of the board responsible for production. "In fuel cells, for example, we are talking about accuracies of five thousandths of a millimeter - you have to be able to measure and manufacture that," he emphasized.
Notice: No person, organization and/or company shall disseminate or broadcast the above article on Xinhua Silk Road website without prior permission by Xinhua Silk Road.
A single purchase
