CARS GLOBALMAG October 2016 | Página 121

Close to the Sint-Truiden main manufacturing facility is the Monroe® Engineering & Technology Center (METC), that performs suspension system research, development, and testing. METC was built in 1995 and currently has 165 employees. Research areas include: • Mechatronics: Harvesting energy by means of electro magnetism and developing low cost damper technologies. • Vehicle Dynamics: Understanding vehicle shock absorber requirements and component interactions to improve driving dynamics for proactive and predictive development. • Predictive Tools: Developing computational tools to accelerate product development and predict engineering parameters. • Material Sciences: Researching advances in the material industries that are relevant to Tenneco such as long fibre composites, high strength steel, aluminum and joining techniques. • Human Comfort: Understanding the human neuromuscular system and defining strategies for enhancing the perception of comfort. • Adjacent Technologies: Understanding current and future technologies that could bring added value to ride performance, such as vision systems. CGM