Annual Report 2001 - KSPG AG

Coating unit for
high-duty plain bearings
at the Papenburg plant
In the Air Supply & Pumps division,
€49.3 million was spent in fiscal
2001 for research & development
activities, equivalent to 6.0 percent
of sales.
In the Pistons division, the share of
pistons for passenger car diesel
engines again climbed, a trend set
to continue over the years ahead. To
address this, R&D staff in 2001 developed
solutions for high-duty diesel
pistons in passenger car engines rated
at 55 kW and more per liter displacement.
For various European customers,
pistons are currently being developed,
with ratings partly clearly above today’s.
So far, there has not been any breakthrough
in the market for direct-injection
gasoline engines, despite the very
many development projects and some
successful series launches in the past
year. Kolbenschmidt Pierburg is well
prepared for a partial substitution of
conventional gasoline engines thanks
to its new casting technology matured
in the course of last year which enables
a less costly production of the necessary
complex surface geometry. Further
projects in this sector are under development.
In recent years, articulated pistons for
commercial vehicles have been developed
for various customers and are
now being or about to be series-produced.
We are already working on follow-up
models for cylinder pressures
of 250 bar or more. Steel pistons, also
for diesel engine commercial vehicles,
are being advanced according to plan.
A similar engineering trend as for commercial
vehicle engines is also evident
in the case of large-displacement engine
pistons. Continuously increasing
cylinder pressures require even higherduty
pistons and in answer to this,
multipart steel pistons are being produced
for several customers to take
the place of the existing spherical casting/steel
variety. Moreover, a onepiece
steel piston is being developed
for medium-diameter cylinders. The
first of both designs were delivered to
customers for field tests.
The mounting wave of development
projects and the growing complexity
of the project themselves place high
demands on the organization’s capabilities,
its processes, process stages
and structures. In order to dig deeper
into the market and secure technological
leadership, the KS OPUS project
(Optimized Processes Up to Series
production) is being advanced. KS
OPUS’s aim of vastly raising innovation
potentials and streamlining development
processes was impressively
achieved. The efficiency and effectiveness
of such processes were clearly
improved and it is planned to promote
the KS OPUS project outside of Europe.
In the Pistons division, expenses for
research & development activities
amounted to €19.9 million, or 3.5
percent of sales.
In 2001, the focus of R&D activities in
the Plain Bearings division was again
materials development against the
background of rising demands for
environmentally compatible materials
and the EU regulation regarding
scrapped cars to take effect in 2004.
In the case of steel/aluminum materials,
development activities headed
in two directions, on the one hand,
focusing on use in the high-duty
direct-injection diesels set for series
production in 2002, the aim being to
have the division grab a larger share
in the growth of this engine breed.
On the other hand, connecting-rod
bearings are being developed which
can be used on both direct-injection
gasoline as well as diesel engines.
In 2002, the first of these can go into
series production.
Efforts in the area of steel/plastic
composites for the maintenance-free
and low-maintenance Permaglide
bearings product group are intended
at further enhancing temperature resistance
through material refinements
and, at the same time, dispensing
with lead. Apart from compliance with
environmental requirements, this is
one way to tap further applications.
An engineering process for achieving
self-sufficiency in the growing market
of connecting-rod bearings used in
direct-injection engines was a major
development project within strategic
product planning.
The R&D expenses of Plain Bearings
totaled €2.4 million in 2001, equivalent
to 1.6 percent of sales.
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