Japanese speciality chemicals company Toray Industries, Inc. has opened its “automotive centre Europe” (AMCEU) in the suburbs of Munich, southern Germany.
The company said the official opening ceremony took place 25 Jan, in the presence of Bavarian authorities as well as automotive manufacturers and Tier 1 automotive suppliers.
The facility will serve as technological development base of Toray Group, allowing the company to expand its green innovation (GR) business in Europe.
The centre includes a two-story building with total floor area of about 3,400 square metres, housing design, moulding/processing and evaluation facilities, a showroom as well as office and meeting rooms.
According to Toray, the newly opened centre provides cross-functional support to automotive OEMs and suppliers in the area Western Europe.
In addition to offering options for joint development studies, the Toray centre will support its customers in all stages from concept through design with all analytical, moulding, simulation and processing technologies.
“The automobile industry currently is said to be in the midst of a once-in-a-century revolution, where eco-friendly automobiles and new business models for connected, autonomous, shared and electrified vehicles are being developed,” said Toray in a statement.
The new mobility trends have resulted in designing “unconventional components and additional challenges such as the reduction of the environmental footprint and leading-edge lightweight and multi-material concepts”, the company added.
Toray said it is following the idea of “cars evolve through materials”, adding it is “constantly developing new materials” to meet new requirements and to support its customers in various stages of design and production.