DELHI, Ont. – The recent 37,000 sq-ft addition to the Titan Trailers Inc. head office and factory includes a newly expanded home for the company’s in-house research and development engineering team.

It also houses quality control, new training facilities, and other departments. The expansion was designed to be particularly energy-efficient.

“We have created a state-of-the-art green facility that incorporates the latest technology and an ideal working environment for our employees,” says Titan president and founder Mike Kloepfer.

The shop’s working areas are especially bright, largely because see-through, energy-efficient overhead doors have southern exposure and let in the most light possible.

“There are light sensors strategically positioned to monitor the overall brightness inside,” Kloepfer explains. “The sensors activate and deactivate the low-energy lights to maintain a consistent level of brightness indoors. As the sun rises the lights begin to shut down and continue to shut more down throughout the day until late afternoon when they begin turning back on.

“The south-facing transparent doors also assist the heating process by delivering extra radiant heat. On sunny winter days, the in-floor heating system will not even turn on because the radiant heat from the doors will warm the shop about two degrees warmer than our thermostat setting.”

The in-floor heating system was chosen for employee comfort and efficiency. It delivers heat at the floor level where it’s needed most and is up to 30 percent more efficient than conventional ceiling-mounted heating systems.

The new building has 20 bays in all, two
of them dedicated to the R&D crew

The R&D facility incorporates new trailer bays for design and testing, plus expanded meeting and demonstration space, room for library and reference resources, and a suite of individual work stations for FEA, CAD and modeling.

The new building has 20 bays in all, two of them dedicated to the R&D crew, and each bay is fully equipped as a self-sufficient unit. Each one has its own welding equipment as well as pneumatic tool setups, meaning every bay is set up to do every job. Efficiency is thus maximized.

Kloepfer, incidentally, expects that this recent expansion will increase productivity by more than 30 percent. Titan’s original facility will continue to house its head office, primary manufacturing, and production engineering departments.