Tenneco has opened of a state-of-the-art, 9,600-square-metre engineering centre that will serve the company’s European Ride Control and Advanced Suspension Technologies (AST) businesses. The facility, named the Monroe European Engineering Center, is located approximately 2km from Tenneco’s manufacturing complex in Gliwice, Poland.
The engineering centre houses nearly 240 Tenneco Ride Control and AST product engineers, whose work will support an array of global vehicle manufacturer customers as well as the company’s Performance Solutions plants in Spain, Czech Republic, Belgium and Poland. Among the principal products that will be designed and validated in the new centre are Monroe OE Solutions passive dampers and modules, and Monroe Intelligent Suspension semi-active suspension dampers and modules. Together these technologies are featured in millions of late-model passenger vehicles, commercial trucks, buses, trailers and other applications.
The facility is also responsible for the design of a broad range of core components – including valve systems, guidance and sealing systems and structural parts and materials – featured in Monroe OE Solutions and Monroe Intelligent Suspension dampers. In addition, the centre will oversee European ‘ride work’ activities, through which Tenneco engineers collaborate with vehicle manufacturers to test and finalise damper valving prior to the launch of each new customer vehicle model.
“This impressive new facility enables our Ride Control and Advanced Suspension Technologies teams to increase the velocity and value of our technology introduction on behalf of global OEMs,” said Romain Nollet, Tenneco’s group vice president and general manager of Ride Control.
In conjunction with the building project, Tenneco has invested in the latest computer-aided design (CAD) and engineering (CAE) technologies and other solutions required for the development of mechanical, electronic and hydraulic systems. The facility’s 5,330-square-metre shop is equipped to quickly produce and test protypes of all types of passive and semi-active dampers. Onsite product validation capabilities include strength, durability, corrosion, performance and noise tests, as well as computerised simulations of component and product performance.
With the opening of the Monroe European Engineering Center, Tenneco now serves Ride Control and AST customers through a network of five advanced technology facilities, in Gliwice; Monroe, Michigan, USA; Ermua, Spain; Sint-Truiden, Belgium; and Beijing, China.
