Hungarian automotive industry: week 18 2017 edition

Manufacturers

In the next year and a half, Audi Hungaria will train more than 1,000 employees for the production of the Q3, 350 of whom will utilise the new robot cells along with students in the company’s dual training programme. The robot cells will enter operation in two shifts in the middle of the year.

A tyre recycling plant has been built in Szolnok with a HUF 620m (€2m) development project. The plant is expected to begin operation once it receives the necessary permits from the authorities, sometime this July-August.

Suppliers

Titán ‘94 Kft., a Budapest-based company in 100% Hungarian ownership, supplies Suzuki with 87 different parts and boasts an annual revenue of HUF 1.4bln.

Each year, the company’s 4,000sqm pressing and welding plant, located near the M3 motorway, manufactures more than 8 million metal body panels. We interviewed the company’s director.

The Bosch plant in Miskolc will be bought by a Chinese automotive supplier as part of an acquisition concerning the German group’s starter motor and generator division.

As a result of the acquisition, the Chinese buyers will put their hands on 16 Bosch sites spread out in a total of 14 countries once the deal receives approval from authorities and the German workers' representation.

Bridgestone Tatabánya have won the Tyre Manufacturing Production Innovation of the Year award for a new technology using artificial intelligence. The tyre maker’s digital technology allows younger employees to use the expertise of their older, more experienced colleagues during their work.

Káta CNC Kft., a company engaged in metalworking and the manufacture of connectors and engine parts, have built a new production site in Jászberény with a HUF 1bln (€3.2m) investment, supported with a HUF 500m (€1.6m) subsidy from European Union funds.

Not only is the Budapest R&D institute of Knorr-Bremse Fékrendszerek Kft. developing the drive assist systems of the future, but also striving to recruit future engineers.

The company is relying heavily on its trainee programme, and supports scientific research to ensure continuity in their staff supply. Last week, we interviewed Dr. Levente Balogh (pictured below), head of the company’s drive assist systems development group.

Service providers

The Hungarian government is looking to place more emphasis on the local supplier base. According to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, their aim is to provide the most competitive investment environment in the region, connecting production with digitalisation in order to convert Hungary into the most competitive R&D location.

Blue Green Way (BGW) Kft. has built a new CNG station in Keszthely. The company is set to built a nation-wide network within this year.

“There is no reindustrialisation without bus manufacturing,” Gyula Pomázi, state secretary of the Ministry for National Economy responsible for industrial strategy and economic regulation, said at this year’s Busexpo.

Production line

The manual scanning SMD barcodes, their comparison with internal data pools and data verifying is a highly time-consuming task. This lengthy and error-prone workflow has now been reduced and automated to a three-second process by Vonalkód Rendszerház.

TechTogether

SZEngine, a team of student vehicle builders from Széchenyi István University of Győr, have completed the design process of their fifth-generation racing engine (EVO5).

One of the crucial challenges was the placement of the generator. We interviewed head constructor Gergely Légrádi about the details of their development work.

Pneumobil kicked off last Friday in Eger, a student race where compressed air and engineering creativity meet. We interviewed Krisztián Veszelszki, one of the team captains, about how the experiences they gain during preparation can be utilised in a working environment.