Dürr is spending almost € 10M euros on further expanding its headquarters because of the positive growth prospects: The world's largest test center for painting technology in Bietigheim-Bissingen (Germany) has been redesigned and upgraded.
The company has also invested in a third facility for robot assembly. "We are receiving more and more requests for painting trials. We have extended the Test Center to meet this demand. The new production facility means that we have now expanded our total robot assembly operations on the Bietigheim site by 6,600 m2 to 17,900 m2. This represents an improvement in our operational workflows because we can dispense with the premises in the locality which we had rented because of the high demand in the last few years," explains Dr. Hans Schumacher, Head of the Application Technology division (robot and application technology).
State-of-the-art technology has been installed in the Test Center Paint. Customers from the automotive industry can test and optimize their painting processes under realistic conditions before going into mass production. Six painting robots have been equipped with Dürr's most commonly used atomizers for the internal and external spraying of automotive bodies. One- and two-component water-based and solvent-based paints can be used in trials. 13 different painting processes can be carried out in the modern booth – tailored to customers' requirements. Their systems are also replicated with the aid of a new lift table which is adjustable both horizontally and vertically.
Robot assembly systems were installed and commissioned in the new production facility in the last few weeks. Areas have also been created for logistics and quality assurance operations. The new building is connected to the existing assembly facilities via a corridor. Since the commissioning of the third building, all the robots for painting and sealing are assembled at the headquarters in Bietigheim-Bissingen and equipped with the appropriate applications; in addition, performance tests and precommissioning tests are carried out here.
The automotive industry is continuing to plan a large number of investment projects, for example for automating the process of painting vehicle interiors which was still mainly carried out manually until recently. Dürr is contributing to the development of highly efficient painting processes with its innovative technologies.
In 2012, the company shipped 1,350 robots (2011: 1,090). A total of 1,862 employees work at the company headquarters, 749 of them in the Application Technology division.