Antonov opens Warwick Technical Centre

Antonov, a vehicle technology company specialising in the design and development of automatic transmission systems, has opened a new engineering centre near Warwick in the UK.

The new facility has allowed the consolidation of all Antonov product development activity onto one site and will help strengthen Antonov’s engineering services to the automotive industry and in particular the export of those services abroad.

“The new building underpins the company’s technical know-how and competence in automatic transmission design,” said John Moore chief executive officer. “It will help facilitate the continued commercialisation of Antonov’s patents and intellectual property – particularly with overseas customers.”

The company is currently focused on three product groups:

The Antonov six-speed automatic transmission - which offers a low entry cost to the application of a full electronically controlled six speed gearbox and is the subject of the on-going joint venture negotiations with Loncin

The Antonov four-speed automatic transmission is an all mechanical low cost transmission system targeted at emerging market applications

The Antonov two-speed automatic mechanical module is a self controlling mechanical drive. Initial production is for a dual-speed supercharger with additional applications to engine front end accessory drives under development

The new design office operates on ProENGINEER Wildfire software through a central server operating ProINTRALINK.

“This provides full component design control linked to the bill of materials and associated product design and sub-system specifications,” said operations director Chris Baylis. “It ensures that we have production design control as good as any in the industry.”

The CAE team has added RomaxDesigner to its suite of standard analysis tools to speed up concept development and extend the component data control into the CAE function.

The enlarged test and development capability includes dedicated rigs for both the development and production pass-off testing of superchargers and two speed drives. The automatic transmission facilities now include a hydraulic flow bench and low load spin rig in addition to the existing clutch test rig and transmission dynamometer. Data acquisition is all by direct digital capture.

The new facility provides a high quality working environment and has space for future growth. Whilst the core team is already in place, Antonov will continue to recruit engineers to meet programme demand.

“By this time next year we expect to be employing a team of 30 highly experienced engineers working on current and future client projects,” said Moore. “There is a wealth of automotive engineering know-how and experience in this area - which is why we’ve located here - and we’re close to other automotive technology specialists and sub-suppliers.”

The new building provides 420 m2 for engineering offices and 1,650 m2 of test and development workshops and is located at Hawkes Drive on the Heathcote Industrial Estate near Leamington Spa, close to junction 14 on the M40 motorway.