Doosan’s global R&D centre will bring greater innovation to UK forklift market

2nd April 2015

Logistics BusinessDoosan’s global R&D centre will bring greater innovation to UK forklift market

Doosan Industrial Vehicle UK’s general manager says the company’s purpose-built 26,000 sq m global research and development centre in Korea will result in significant benefits for its UK forklift customers.

Doosan products are shaped by a typically Korean focus on innovation and applied technology and the company’s commitment to outstanding in-house research and development is illustrated by the 12-storey building, with two additional basement floors, in Incheon, near Seoul.

The building has enough room to accommodate 1,000 R&D personnel in an environment specifically designed to facilitate collaboration among the different business groups within Doosan’s infrastructure support division.

Doosan’s ability to exploit synergies within the wider company and innovate with industry-leading results was demonstrated last year with the UK launch of its award-winning G2 engine range. A collaboration between Doosan Industrial Vehicle and Doosan Engine, the G2 meets stringent new EU emissions standards while completely removing the need for diesel particulate filters (DPFs) – a common cause of engine malfunction and business downtime. This gives the G2 a huge maintenance advantage over other engines, while delivering best-in-class performance on fuel economy and emissions.

Tim Waples, Director of Doosan Industrial Vehicle UK, said: “Our unrivalled in-house research capability gives us a significant competitive advantage. The G2 engine range was the result of our researchers taking a radical new approach to engine design after realising conventional approaches such as DPFs were flawed.

“Our global research and development centre will undoubtedly lead to more of these game-changing product advances reaching the UK market. That has to be excellent news for our customers.”

The global R&D centre features meeting spaces and ‘idea rooms’ to promote communication among researchers and aid creativity, as well as an academy devoted to the continuous professional development of Doosan’s researchers. The contents of the company’s major patents are also on permanent display, illustrating the accomplishments of company researchers.