Rolls-Royce invests in R&D site

A special feature of the new testing facility is the gallery that has been erected above each test stand booth. This will play a role in the development of exhaust after treatment systems.

Dr Ulrich Dohle, CEO of Rolls-Royce Power Systems, said: “This move is making space for new developments in every sense of the word. Technology on the combustion engine of the future is going to be even more complex than that of its predecessors, so we have to make absolutely sure that we have the capacity to carry out tests and trials on our new products reliably and intensively.”

Rolls-Royce Power Systems will be using the new facilities not only to test further developments on existing engine series, but to break into new territories. New combustion processes, advanced technologies for electronic regulation and control and, from mid-2016, alternative fuels such as gas are some of the latest developments that will be put under scrutiny at the test stands.

Dr Dohle added: “Exhaust after treatment is one of our technologies for MTU engines. We are making a major research effort in this area because we want to develop diesel particulate filter and SCR technologies as far as we can ourselves. That will put us in a position to provide customers with a complete systems package.”

Construction of the five storey, 9,000 square metre building that houses the test stands was begun in spring 2013 and recently completed. The first three test stands for testing 2,500kW engines were set up in the first phase.

Now the construction of a gas supply network for gas engine research is underway that is to go into service in mid-2016. Rolls-Royce Power Systems has invested some €40 million in the new testing facilities at MTU.

MTU is a Rolls-Royce Power Systems brand in the Rolls-Royce Land & Sea division requirements.