IMechE Germany group visit to BorgWarner Turbo Systems Engineering

A party of combustion engine enthusiasts visited BorgWarner Turbo Systems Engineering in Kirchheimbolanden, near Frankfurt on 16 November 2018. Germany Group member Dr. David Foster CEng FIMechE reports.

We were first taken round their manufacturing facilities, the plant for machining and preparing turbocharger components and then the assembly lines for the many different turbocharger variants produced.

BorgWarner in Kirchheimbolanden supplies only to the automotive industry, mainly European. Their clients consist of just about every car manufacturer one can think of. Both plants are fully automated, with some impressive robot stations. Following these two tours it was into their Engineering Division, where we were shown the banks of test rigs with BorgWarner turbochargers fitted on clients‘ prototype engines and several turbocharger components test cells for individual component testing, some times to destruction.

The afternoon was devoted to two key presentations, the first by Dr. Stefan Muenz, Director Innovation and New Concepts at BorgWarner Turbo Systems Engineering, on research and development projects where he addressed the state-of-the-art regarding turbomachinery design. In response, a presentation was given by Germany Group member Eur Ing David Eyre-Jackson CEng MIMechE, Airframe Programme Integrator at Airbus Operations in Hamburg, on the testing of the Airbus A350 airframe representing the state-of-the-art of physical validation in the aerospace industry.

Both presentations were received extremely well with a number of questions and discussion points put to the speakers, such was the interest.