Carraro R&D

Research and Development at Carraro Group has always been a winning aspect in the relationship with the customer. Skills ranging from single gears to complete vehicles allow us to offer not  just products, but physical (HW) and logical (SW) systems that can be directly integrated into complex environments (vehicle). Technical ability, the spirit of innovation and listening to the market then transform products that are apparently always the same, such as axles and transmissions, into solutions that are always different, highly-performing and sustainable. From the generation of the "concept" - a synthesis of market, customer and strategy - to mass production, each phase of the development of a new product is internal to the Carraro system. Everything is tracked and managed with an organized and rigorous PLM (product lifecycle performance) flow.

Some numbers to quantify the commitment and consistency of the result:

• 5 R&D centers, distributed along Italy, Luxembourg, India and China, to directly experience the reference markets and support the production plants.
• 220 technicians competent in interdisciplinary subjects such as mechanical design, structural calculation, multi-domain simulation, hydraulic systems, electronic controls and experimentation.
• More than 3000 technical drawings released every year regarding both new products and updates
• Hundreds of projects active in parallel and distributed over the 5 "PR - Project Reviews" planned for product development: preliminary analysis – design – prototyping and validation – industrialization – monitoring and closure 
• Possibility of functional, reliability and structural tests, on sub-assemblies and complete systems (90000+ hours of annual tests performed on average in a year)
• 7000 square meters of experimental laboratory, 35 test benches divided into 18 thematic areas including:
• modular functionality and reliability benches (power test - PT) for axles and transmissions (2-3-4 motors/brakes)
• Lubrication and efficiency test benches with tilting table (Functional test - FT)
• Dynamic test (DT) power benches for brakes, clutches, differentials and synchronizers  
• Structural test benches (ST)
• Steering cycle test (SCT) benches
• Benches for special environmental conditions (cold room and mud)
• Benches for hydraulic systems
• benches for HW and SW (Hardware in the LOOP – HIL) validation
• 2-roller screed for complete vehicle
• Bench for under the bonnet on a complete vehicle (engine application)   
• Noise and vibration (NVH) acquisitions
• Metrological laboratory with the possibility of metallurgical analysis
• 170000 square meters of test field for vehicle tests and homologations, with the possibility of acquisition, correlation and reproduction of mission profiles in the laboratory.

The R&D of the Carraro Group is an expert competence center, always ready to share every initiative with the customer, suggesting solutions, tests and verifications based on its experience, but also always open to discussion to improve and optimize its work plan, test standards, performance references and shared objectives, with a view to increasing efficiency and reducing timing and costs.