Component test stands, single-cylinder test stands, transient test stands, gas engine test stands and field trials units - Tognum development engineers subject new generations of engines to rigorous testing regimes before they are included in the engine program. To simulate reality as closely as possible during test runs, Tognum’s R&D test stands are being equipped with dynamic components step by step. Rapid load changes are accurately simulated, for example, using an electrodynamic dynamometer. Temperature and air humidity can be precisely adjusted in addition. The duration of the test runs has been extended to 3,000 hours because the legislator demands reliable emission data for the entire service life of an engine. Single-cylinder test stands have been successfully introduced to reduce complexity and save fuel costs. They are used at the Magdeburg location, for example, to adjust the combustion process to achieve the lowest emissions and minimum consumption before the first full engine is ever started up.

The final link in the R&D chain is the field trials unit. At its Friedrichshafen location, the Tognum Group has set up gas engines as well as two diesel gensets (Series 1600 and 4000) for field trials under actual operating conditions. They generate continuous power and are therefore ideal for system tests with the new SCR exhaust aftertreatment system and other new engine components such as the Lead2 injection system from L’Orange. To make sure that gas engines gain the attention they deserve as a source of clean drive power, the Gas Engine Development section at Tognum is working intensively on expanding the product range. A R&D gas engine test stand went into operation at the Augsburg location in July 2011.

Tognum’s R&D activities have long since expanded beyond the German locations at Friedrichshafen, Augsburg, Magdeburg and Glatten. Engines for the US market, for example, are calibrated in Detroit and in Asia, Tognum also has an “Engineering Research Center” in the Indian city of Pune.