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Mar 1, 2012 9:22 AM

Kögel, Europe's third largest manufacturer of commercial trailers, has purchased the sandwich-panel competence center in Duingen, Lower Saxony, bringing the important know-how of box-body production in-house.

Kögel is reacting to the ever-increasing demand for its box-body trailers and has secured long-term experience in the production of sandwich panels. This also means that Kögel will be a pedigree manufacturer of box bodies in the future.

The factory in Duingen was founded in the 1970s by the Graaff wagon-building company and quickly developed into a popular supplier for dry-freight and chilled-distribution body manufacturers. Kögel took over the factory from the European Van Company. The new Kögel competence center in Duingen has a workforce of 50 employees.

After the takeover, Kögel invested in the manufacturing plant and immediately started a multi-stage test program with side walls and roofs. Subsequent to successful vibration and low-temperature tests, production of 30- to 65-millimeter-thick PUR foam (polyurethane) sandwich panels with steel covering sheets was started immediately. Direct foam injection of the intermediate levels and anchoring rails makes subsequent expensive fitting superfluous.

The bodies, produced in the new Kögel competence center, are used not only at Kögel, but also by long-term special manufacturers of temperature-controlled box bodies.

"We are looking forward very much to receiving sandwich panels from Duingen in the future,” says Peter Horn, Managing Director of Nutzfahrzeuge Rohr GmbH, a commercial vehicle manufacturer. "With the takeover by Kögel, we expect consistently high quality of panels as we and our customers require.”

"The take-over of the works in Duingen is a consistent course setting for ongoing growth at Kögel,” says Thomas Heckel, CEO and Managing Director at Kögel. "This will allow us to provide consistent high quality for the production of our box bodies with security of supply and at a very attractive price.”

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