Commitment rewarded with new orders

PIA Automation develops and manufactures assembly and production equipment for components of internal combustion engines as well as electric and hybrid drive systems. As the powertrain and e-mobility competence center of the globally active PIA Group, the Austrian site is pleased to announce the receipt of new orders totaling the amount in the mid-double-digit million euro range at the end of this challenging year.

The economic effects of the Corona pandemic are being strongly felt, particularly within the automotive sector. Nikolaus Szlavik, Managing Director of PIA Automation Austria, commented on the situation in recent months stating, "When it came to placing new orders, both the major vehicle manufacturers and their main suppliers showed a certain reluctance. During this phase of uncertainty, we did everything we could to keep our production running, as well as gathering all the information we could for successful project acquisition on others." This tireless effort has now been rewarded with new orders within the powertrain and e-mobility sectors.

German OEM orders Two Axle Drive Production Lines

The partnership between the German premium car manufacturer and PIA Automation Austria goes back many years. The latest result of this successful cooperation are two lines ordered by the OEM at Grambach. These two assembly lines for front axle transmissions have the following special feature: 15 different transmission variants for almost all vehicle types for the customer's main brand are assembled on these lines every minute. "This order underlines our position in the market and speaks to the excellent performance of our production lines as well as the satisfaction of our customers" reports Andreas Stugger, Head of Sales & Customer Service at PIA Automation Austria. "As with our customers' powertrains, we have also developed our technologies and processes over the last three decades to meet the growing demands of the industry."

Tier-1 Automotive Supplier Orders Assembly Line for e-transmissions

PIA Automation Austria is also pleased to announce an order for the future market of electric mobility. This customer of an assembly plant for e-transmission is one of the world's leading tier-1 automotive suppliers from North America. "Electromobility is a market of hope and future worldwide," says Nikolaus Szlavik. "We are therefore proud that PIA has proved itself with know-how and experience within the automation of components for electric drive systems and that we are supporting our customers in making e-mobility a reality." The fact that PIA plays a key role in establishing e-mobility is shown by the following: The e-transmission of the current customer is completed with the e-motor of a German automotive supplier. The assembly line for this motor is also currently being completed at PIA Automation Austria.

The E-revolution in automotive engineering has drastic consequences for production. The wide range of variants and increasing quality requirements in the powertrain area are constantly being expanded by the newly emerging concepts in electric and hybrid drives. Nikolaus Szlavik states, "For the production of e-mobility components, we at PIA have developed concepts of partially automated and flexibly interlinked assembly cells. These results, in an agile and future-proof system,  prepares us for the integration of further units and enables variable employee deployment." The use of self-developed autonomous mobile robots (AMR) and smart Industry 4.0 solutions round off PIA's product portfolio.