Vaillant Group holds house-raising ceremony for its Research and Development Centre

Remscheid, 28 October 2016

• The first milestone for the new research and development centre

• Focus on highly efficient technologies

• Completion planned for 2018

Today the Management Board of the Vaillant Group, together with Dr Philipp Vaillant, member of the Vaillant Group Partners’ Board, and the mayor of the city of Remscheid, Burkhard Mast-Weisz, laid the foundation stone for the new building of the research and development centre (R&D centre) at the company headquarters in Remscheid. “Since its foundation in 1874, the Vaillant Group has been the technological pacemaker of the heating industry. With the new research and development centre we are concentrating on environmentally friendly, resource-saving technologies and making Remscheid an important location for future technologies,” says Dr Carsten Voigtländer, Chief Executive Officer of the Vaillant Group, at the ceremony for the laying of the foundation stone. “With that we are making a substantial contribution to achieving the national and European climate protection goals.” The focus of the company’s development strategy is on environmentally friendly heat pumps, efficient gas-fired condensing technology, technically complex system solutions, intelligent control technology and digital services. The total investment costs for the new R&D centre will be approximately 54 million euros. Completion of the centre is scheduled for spring 2018.

Flexible and efficient

The R&D centre will be adjacent to the plant premises. In total it will comprise a test centre with an area of 9,000 square metres and two office blocks with a total floor space of 14,500 square metres. A glass atrium will connect the buildings with one another. The centre’s modern architecture will enable the employees to meet and exchange information informally. 570 employees from all the departments involved in the product development process will be moving into the building. It will be possible to flexibly adapt the working environment to meet the requirements of the interdisciplinary teams and projects.

The test centre will be fitted with more than 230 test rigs, which will include 40 heat pump test rigs, 21 climatic chambers as well as a drop test and wind test laboratory. The waste heat from the test rigs will be reused to heat the R&D centre, thus fulfilling high sustainability standards.