Doosan Bobcat has been spending heavily on developing its research and development centre in the Czech Republic. The facility is located at an integrated site at Dobris that also includes manufacturing, sourcing and training.
According to the firm, the ability to design, test and manufacture Bobcat machines locally is one of the company’s competitive advantages in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. The developments at the facility are intended to boost these advantages and involve every part of operations, from rapid prototyping and prototype assembly to performance and durability testing.
The facility serves as an expert R&D centre for all Doosan Bobcat engineering teams across EMEA and has global responsibility for small compact loaders and compact excavators weighing up to 3tonnes.
It focuses on creating new innovative solutions, product development, research and testing activities. The facility, with more than 8,000m2 of floor space for prototyping and testing and 1,400m2 of office area, is a place where new advanced – and in some cases – unique technologies are installed.
Over the last 12 months, Doosan Bobcat has completed several more significant investments and has installed a new CNC horizontal boring machine, a CNC 5 axis milling machine and a dynamometer. The total cost was approximately e1.41 million, with 50% incentive grants provided by the Czech Government.
The CNC machines have been installed to support faster prototype builds providing full control of the processes without the involvement of third parties. Other important aspects are fixtures production for the Dobris manufacturing plant and testing of machining processes that help in the introduction of new machining in the production plant. The dynamometer is being used for measuring engine or powertrain system loadings in laboratory conditions. Testing on the dynamometer is mandatory for new engine implementation and for application approval on the supplier side.
Close to the R&D facility is and the main plant is the location for the Bobcat polygon for field testing. With more than 20 engineers, operators and technicians plus six hectares of space with artificial lighting, machine shops and diagnostic laboratories, the polygon is a useful asset.
