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Ford's new Hi-Tech centre

Ford’s $27 million research and development centre at Geelong.

With the next-generation Falcon just around the corner, the temperature is rising at Ford.

The new Orion sedan, ute and wagon are due to arrive within months and Ford is bullish about the future, having just unveiled a $27 million research and development centre at Geelong.

It is the first of several hi-tech aids, including a wind tunnel, that will help Ford Australia's continuing push for more global design and engineering business.

Some of the facilities have already been put to use for the Orion, but Ford is taking a longer-term view.

The facilities are part of a Ford spend of $1.8 billion over the next 10 years.

The R & D centre, which will open early next year, is part of the first development and equipment at its Geelong stamping plant and You Yangs proving ground.

It now employs 350 engineers and 120 tradespeople.

However, vice-president of product development Trevor Worthington said the company was looking for new engineers.

“We are advertising and with our work with the T6 truck program and the India Fiesta, we're in need of more staff,” he said.

The new side body stamping plant at Geelong for the Orion and the next-generation Focus, which will be built in Australia from 2011, cost $55 million.

At the You Yangs, Ford has spent $29 million upgrading several facilities, including a semi-anechoic chamber, a vehicle dynamics area, a kinematics and compliance rig and a high-speed centre.

Ford said the semi-anechoic chamber is the only one of its kind in the country.

It is designed to replicate a moving vehicle during open-road driving, but in a controlled environment.

Vice-president of product development Trevor Worthington said the chamber is based on a similar one owned by Jaguar in Britain.

“It slashes the time we spend on the precise monitoring of various noise, vibration and harshness issues,” he said.

Because of the vagaries of the You Yangs weather, the chamber is housed in a double skin building to isolate surrounding weather from the chamber.

Tests can be conducted 24 hours a day, seven days a week regardless of the weather.

Worthington said the improvements are designed to slash development times for new cars, provide the latest engineering technologies and improve staff conditions.

“Some of our existing facilities are more than 30 years old,” he said.