KAPP NILES celebrates a significant milestone in its long-standing cooperation with the Volkswagen plant in Kassel, one of the largest passenger car transmission plants in the world. The official handover of the 100th machine continues the success story that began more than 27 years ago.
In June 1997, the first KAPP VAC 65 coroning machine was delivered to Baunatal. This marked the beginning of a close partnership. Within a few years, 15 more machines of this type followed.
This cooperation continued with the gear grinding centers of the KX series delivered from 2008 onwards. These machines for generating and profile grinding were used in a wide range of applications at Volkswagen: from grinding gears in gearboxes for combustion engines to gear development at the competence center.
Focus on electromobility
With the omission of the combustion engine, the demands on the noise development of the gearbox and the individual gears increase. To produce gears, this means tighter manufacturing tolerances than with conventional vehicle drives.
In 2012, KAPP NILES supported the pre-series production of the drives for the first generation of VW electric vehicles - the E-Up and E-Golf - with an extensive test phase. One year later, the first two KX 260 TWIN gear centres for these products went into operation in Baunatal. Further machines of the same type were subsequently procured for other e-gearbox variants.
In the development of electric drives today, the focus is absolutely on efficiency and therefore the driving range of the vehicles. Gearboxes and gears can also make a significant contribution to this. By using combined grinding processes with process-integrated fine or polishing grinding, gears can now be produced on KAPP NILES machines with the highest surface quality and therefore higher efficiency in the transmission.
These innovative grinding technologies are a key component in the production of modern e-drives - at Volkswagen in particular for the new MEB platform with the APP 350 and APP 550 transmission types. For these projects, KAPP NILES has supplied over 30 machines to Volkswagen Kassel in recent years.
A strong foundation for the future
The handover of the 100th machine emphasises the importance of the long-standing and close collaboration between KAPP NILES and Volkswagen Kassel. ‘We are proud to make a contribution to increasing efficiency and technological development - especially with regard to the transformation to electromobility,’ emphasises Matthias Kapp, Managing Partner at KAPP NILES.