AUBURN HILLS, Mich.,
Jan. 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/
-- NORMA Group, a global market leader in engineered joining
technology, is investing nearly $1,000,000 to expand its North American test labs
and product development facilities to meet a future need for
lighter exhaust, powertrain and electric-vehicle components.
NORMA Group CEO Werner Deggim said the company is expanding its
product development facilities in Auburn
Hills and St. Clair,
Michigan, as well as test labs in Monterrey, Mexico. He added that similar
investments are being made at NORMA Group locations in Qingdao and Changzhou, China; Hustopece, Czech Republic; Maintal, Germany; Pilica, Poland, and Subotica, Serbia.
New plastic tubing and components for next-generation system
designs are lighter and easier to assemble than current product
solutions that rely on metal or rubber, according to Jonathan Heywood, director of product
engineering for NORMA Group's
Engineered Joining Technology business unit in Maintal,
Germany.
"Tubes and connectors in a wide variety and combination of
plastics provide an optimal solution for many customer needs for
durable, recyclable light-weight parts," Heywood explained. "For
example, plastic components with low fluid permeability and the
ability to withstand wide temperature variations are ideal for
hydrogen lines and battery-cooling applications."
He added that tubing designed with multiple layers of different
plastics offers customers an even broader range of characteristics
and flexibility in both performance and price.
NORMA Group's new product
development facilities will evaluate the performance of fluid
systems, such as cooling-system water pipes and urea systems,
subjecting them to a broad range of temperatures from minus 40 up
to 300 degrees Celsius; pressures of up to 20 bar, and different
vibration frequencies. Simulation testing will take into account
variations in temperature and pressure and will include chemical
resistance to different media, such as glycol-water mixtures, oil,
diesel, gasoline and urea.
Deggim noted that plastic materials which can be reused or
recycled are becoming more and more important and offer an
opportunity to replace conventional materials such as rubber and
metal, which often are heavier and more expensive.
"By investing in our global network of laboratories, we will be
able to meet an even wider range of customer test requirements,"
said Deggim. "Our goal is to take a leading position in the
development of high-temperature resistant plastics as well. In labs
around the world, we are developing and testing individual product
solutions together with our customers on site."
NORMA Group has been expanding its test labs worldwide since
2015 to ensure the same high standards in quality assurance on a
global basis. The reliable function of connection products is
crucial, since they are considered to be function critical. If even
one element leaks, the function of the entire vehicle can be
affected. For this reason, NORMA
Group is committed to comprehensive in-house performance tests for
all products, whether plastic or metal. In total, the company
annually invests about five percent of its sales in the area of
engineered joining technology (EJT) in research and development
(2015: EUR 25.4 million).
About NORMA Group
NORMA Group is a global market
leader in engineered joining technology. The company manufactures a
wide range of innovative connecting solutions and water management
technology offering more than 35,000 products to customers in 100
countries with around 6,700 employees.
NORMA Americas is an integral
part of the NORMA Group.
Headquartered in Auburn Hills,
Michigan, it manufactures high quality clamps, connectors
and fluid systems with more than 1,300 employees at nine production
facilities in North and South
America with annual sales of about EUR 395 million.
Additional information on the company is available at
www.normagroup.com and press photos are available at
www.normagroup.com/images.
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SOURCE NORMA Group