Sep 19, 2013

  • Double milestone at the international automotive supplier's site: ten years and 12 million fuel pumps
  • Still expanding, the plant now has a workforce of 700 and is Continental's global competence center for high-pressure fuel pumps

Roding. Modern cars are becoming more and more eco-friendly and Roding is playing its part in this development. Established in 2003, Continental's Roding site is now the international automotive supplier's global competence center for the development and production of high-pressure fuel pumps. As a key component of cutting-edge injection technologies, the pumps help reduce fuel consumption and thereby cut CO2 emissions. One of the region's largest employers, Continental now has some 700 people on the payroll in Roding.

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Recently, the site officially celebrated its tenth anniversary in its Schorndorfer Strasse location. Among the invited guests were Markus Sackmann, MdL, undersecretary in the Bavarian State Ministry of Employment and Social Order, the Family and Women; Franz Löffler, District Administrator of Cham and Regional President of the Upper Palatinate; First Mayor of Roding Franz Reichold; José Avila, Member of Continental's Executive Board and Head of the Powertrain Division, and Wolfgang Breuer, Head of Continental's Engine Systems Business Unit, to which the Roding plant belongs.

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"The Roding site's ten-year history is a success story that we intend to continue," said Breuer. "We have invested some 30 million euros in the production of a new generation of high-pressure pumps for both gasoline and diesel engines and we will continue to expand our production lines in the years ahead." But the plant had more than one milestone to celebrate, because Roding also recently produced its 12 millionth fuel pump. Christophe Lefebvre, Head of the High-Pressure Pumps product line at Engine Systems, presented the Roding Plant Manager Dr. Sami Krimi with the anniversary model - an example of the new generation of gasoline direct injection fuel pumps. Series production of the new gasoline high pressure pump with its cutting-edge technology began in April 2013. New production processes that were also developed in Roding were introduced at the same time. And to guarantee internationally uniform quality standards, all of Continental's fuel pump plants worldwide now employ these processes "made in Roding".

More efficient, smaller, lighter:instead of 5 kilos, pumps now weigh just 600 grams

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To quote Lefebvre, "As one of the world's leading global manufacturers of high-pressure fuel pumps, we are among the innovation drivers in this sector. We work constantly with our customers and suppliers in order to optimize our products and technologies to make them more efficient, particularly in view of the increasingly strict emission guidelines, such as the upcoming Euro 6 standard. The progress we have made on this in recent years is clear for all to see: where a diesel pump still weighed almost five kilos only a few years ago, the latest generation of high-tech units now weigh a mere 600 grams - and are much more efficient."

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With state-of-the-art direct injection technology, the injection process can be controlled even more precisely and fuel consumption cut even further. The fuel pumps from Roding form an important part of this technology and must satisfy a wide variety of requirements. For example, pumps for gasoline direct injection engines work at a pressure of 200 bar - that is approximately 100 times the pressure in a car tire. In the latest diesel engines, the pump pressure is much higher: up to 2,500 bar. While direct injection is already standard in the diesel sector, the market segment of direct injection gasoline engines is still relatively small though growing rapidly. Continental is well-equipped for the future in both sectors: Several new high-pressure fuel pumps for gasoline engines and for diesel engines will go into production in Roding in the next few years.

Roding's success factors:state-of-the-art equipment and committed employees

Roding's special function as a global competence center and lead plant for the development and production of high-pressure fuel pumps is also evident in the level of equipment at the site. The research and development function, for example, has a tribology lab, the only one of its kind at Continental, where the friction, wear and lubrication of materials is investigated and researched. Other special apparatus includes an acoustics chamber, a materials laboratory, a measuring room and several rigs for testing function and endurance.According to Christophe Lefebvre, "The key foundation on which the Roding plant's competence is built is the expertise of our employees." Extensive continuous professional development measures have been employed to boost their qualifications, so that today almost the entire workforce has completed training courses in the kaizen method, which is used to continuously improve products and processes. And when it comes to submitting suggestions for improvements, Roding's employees are among the most pro-active and creative. So much so that, measured by participation level and the number of ideas implemented per employee, the plant ranks alongside Regensburg as the top German facility in Continental's company-wide ideas competition. In the words of Wolfgang Breuer: "The atmosphere in Roding is marked by a high level of motivation. On the occasion of our anniversary, I would again like to thank all our employees in Roding for their outstanding commitment."

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