30 Years of Turbocharger Production in Bradford

BorgWarner Turbo & Emissions Systems has just celebrated the 30th anniversary of the opening of its commercial vehicle turbocharger factory in the city of Bradford. Only recently, the plant underwent extensive modernisation to ensure that it can optimally meet the ever-increasing demand for turbocharged commercial vehicle engines. In the past ten years alone, output in Bradford has more than doubled to over 400,000 units a year. The main customers include Renault/Volvo, Daimler and above all Deutz, who equips all engines with turbochargers from BorgWarner.
The commercial vehicle industry has been booming for years and new markets in Eastern Europe and Asia promise further growth. Environmentally friendly technologies are required to ensure that manufacturers continue to benefit from the current positive situation. As the market leader in the commercial vehicle sector and with many years of experience, BorgWarner Turbo & Emissions Systems makes a major contribution to guaranteeing that even the strictest emissions standards can be met without any loss of driving performance.

More than 420,000 turbochargers in 2007

Bradford is home to one of the turbocharger manufacturer’s most traditional production plants. The city not only offers economic advantages as a manufacturing location but also has excellent transport connections due to its close proximity to Manchester. With a workforce of more than 450 employees, the factory supplies turbocharging systems for European commercial vehicle manufacturers from the factory and produces turbochargers for about ten different OEMs. Output was increased in several steps from around 100,000 turbochargers in 1990 to the current level of about 420,000 turbochargers a year.
The plant was completely modernised over a period of about two years to ensure that it can not only deal with the rising production volumes but also fulfill the ever-increasing technological requirements of customers. A further measure was the introduction of highly automated manufacturing processes that are specially designed to suit the requirements of the commercial vehicle industry. Additional production capacity was necessary in order to meet the growing demand for environmentally-friendly powertrain technologies in Europe.