Production at Audi’s Münchsmünster components plant picks up pace

The new Audi production site in Münchsmünster, 30km east of the main production facility in Ingolstadt, Germany, is where hot and cold formed pressed parts, high tech chassis components and lightweight aluminum structural components, among others, are produced for the new Q7 SUV.

By 2017, a total of 900 employees will be working at the site and shipping out 26 million parts worldwide annually. The production site in Münchsmünster, the high-tech Audi Neuburg complex and the future innovation campus (‘INCampus’) are making the Audi Ingolstadt site a key force behind growth in Bavaria.

“The components that we are manufacturing in Münchsmünster are helping us to perfect our systematic lightweight construction,” says Audi Production Board Member Prof. Dr. Hubert Waltl. The hot-stamped sheet steel components and aluminum die-cast parts result in lower weight components while maintaining the same strength and highest precision. “This is a major contributor to reducing weight in the new Audi Q7, which is up to 325kg lighter than its predecessor. Production at our Münchsmünster site is synonymous with ultramodern, cutting-edge technology,” says Waltl.

Currently more than 500 employees are working a two or three-shift system for Audi at the Münchsmünster site. From the end of 2015, all manufacturing areas will produce components on a three-shift basis.

At the end of 2013, Audi started operations at its competence centre on 31 hectares in the Münchsmünster Industrial Park for the production of aluminium die-cast structural body parts, hot- and cold-formed pressed parts and chassis components. Production is now picking up speed.

On the ultramodern machinery of the aluminium die-casting foundry, production is being ramped up rapidly. More than 30,000 structural components have already been produced in 2015, including the connecting element between the sill/side member and the suspension gear mount for the Q7 successor as well as the suspension strut supports for the next-generation A4. The total volume should reach approximately 200,000 parts by the end of the year.

In the press shop, Audi is currently installing a fully automated laser system. For this purpose, the company has refined mature press technologies for the hot-forming methods used here. The ‘laser park’ will be fully functional in the fall. In total, this site produces 40 different pressed parts, such as side members, and the tunnel bridge for the new A4.

So far this year, Audi has produced 1.38 million standard parts in the chassis component production facility. By the end of the year this figure should reach 4.6 million parts, consisting of wheel hubs, swivel bearings, brake disks and hub carriers primarily for the Audi A4, A5, A6, A7, A8, Audi Q5 and Q7. Audi says it is currently building a second wheel hub line that will be able to produce 100 percent of all wheel hubs at the Münchsmünster site in the future.

The advantages of the 48.2-hectare site in Münchsmünster include its proximity to the main plant and good transport connections via the B 16 and B 16a federal highways. A rail link to the Ingolstadt-Regensburg main railway line is planned for 2017.