Kalmar has officially opened a new fully automated Test Centre in Ljungby, Sweden, marking a significant investment in the development of electric and autonomous material handling equipment. The facility is designed to strengthen product reliability, accelerate development cycles and reduce time-to-market for future product generations, while supporting Kalmar’s focus on customer uptime and sustainable growth.
The official opening ceremony was held on September 3 and brought together approximately 300 guests, including customers, dealers, suppliers, industrial partners, employees and members of the media. Located alongside Kalmar’s Innovation Centre in Ljungby, the new facility has been purpose-built for testing material handling equipment and represents a major expansion of the company’s product validation capabilities.
Kalmar describes the facility as the first fully automated test centre of its kind in the material handling industry, distinguished by its scale, scope and technical capabilities. The centre is designed to conduct accelerated lifetime testing continuously, enabling machines to undergo 24-hour, seven-day-a-week testing without direct human supervision.
The facility can test both electric vehicle and diesel product ranges throughout their operating lifecycles and under demanding environmental conditions. Testing capabilities cover temperatures ranging from Arctic cold to desert heat, allowing Kalmar to evaluate equipment performance across a broad spectrum of operating environments.
Machines can also undergo extensive driving simulations and load testing involving loads of up to 45 tonnes. These tests are designed to assess structural durability, build quality, operational reliability and long-term performance. By subjecting equipment to accelerated testing conditions, Kalmar expects to identify potential issues earlier in the development process and improve the reliability of products before they reach customers.
Alf-Gunnar Karlgren, President, Counterbalanced at Kalmar, said the new Test Centre has been designed to push the company’s machines to their limits through continuous accelerated lifetime testing. He added that the facility would help Kalmar deliver products with improved reliability and longer operating lifetimes while reducing the time required to bring new developments to market.
Sami Niiranen, President and CEO of Kalmar, said the opening represented another step in the company’s investment in sustainable innovation and established a new benchmark for the material handling industry. He noted that the facility reflects Kalmar’s ambition to actively shape the future of material handling rather than simply respond to emerging industry trends.
The new Test Centre is expected to play a central role in Kalmar’s future product development strategy. By combining automated testing, extreme environmental simulation and high-load validation, the facility provides a controlled environment for evaluating equipment performance and durability before deployment.
The investment supports Kalmar’s broader transition towards more sustainable and increasingly autonomous material handling solutions. Through enhanced testing capabilities, the company aims to improve product quality, strengthen customer confidence and deliver equipment capable of maintaining high performance across demanding industrial applications.
