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 realize future opportunities, developing solutions for megatrends such as carbon neutrality, next-generation mobility, and automation. The investment is as well aimed at strengthening the position of the Group’s Herzogenaurach campus as a center of technological excellence, confirming the commitment to the Germany business area.
Schaeffler’s headquarters in Herzogenaurach will soon be home to a cross-divisional central laboratory complex that will span around 15,000 square meters of gross floor space and house 15 laboratories and more than 360 employees. The new laboratory facility will centralize 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 optimization 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. Schaeffler also intends to make the new complex accessible to external customers. Its plans therefore include a laboratory and presentation area for digitalization and the use of artificial intelligence.
Apart from its extensive R&D capabilities, the central laboratory complex in Herzogenaurach will set new standards in laboratory climate control and vibration elimination, making it ideal for high-resolution measurement systems and other highly sensitive technologies. The building, currently in the detailed planning phase, is scheduled for completion in 2023 and for occupation at the start of 2024, will be built to the latest sustainability standards and operated as a green building in accordance with the DNGB (German Sustainability Council) Gold Standard.