Plans
for an all-new purpose-built multi-million pound manufacturing facility and
technical centre in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, UK have been revealed by Cummins Inc.
The plant will be operated by Cummins Turbo Technologies
which is part of the engine maker’s components group.
The company began life over 60 years ago and became known
as Holset Ltd. Cummins acquired the company in 1973 and changed its
name to Cummins Turbo Technologies in 2006.
The company builds about 2.4 million turbochargers a
year and at least half of these are used in non-Cummins engines. Volvo, Scania,
Mercedes-Benz and Iveco are among those using Holset turbos.
The company is working on a range of new technologies.
These include a 20 per cent lighter next-generation Holset VGT; a mechanical waste
heat recovery turbine expander offering five per cent fuel economy savings; the next generation two-stage turbocharger development aimed at developing higher
torques and so helping customers move towards engine downsizing; and finally an
inverse aerodynamic turbocharger impeller giving a one per cent gain.
Of these new technologies, waste heat recovery is most
likely to be foremost and certainly will rank among the focus of work at the
new technology centre which will be up and running in 2016.
Insiders say that with the arrival of the new centre the new manufacturing facilities will offer a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for
the business to stake its claim on turbocharger technology and secure the
future of the business by fully exploiting market opportunities.
The new centre particularly will establish a centre of
excellence for the company’s customers in north-west Europe. Holset systems remain the turbocharger of choice for wide range of international automotive customers.
Holset became a limited company in 1952 and has sales of over $1 billion a year. ∎
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