FARMINGTON HILLS, MI -Kistler, a worldwide supplier of precision sensors, systems and instrumentation for engine, chassis and vehicle development, as well as vehicle component manufacturing systems, announced that construction is underway for a new North American Technical Center in Novi, MI, to complement the existing sales support and manufacturing activities of its Amherst, NY-based corporate headquarters.

With an official groundbreaking last November, the Kistler North America Technical Center is planned to be a 20,000-square foot sales and support entity, designed to provide customers in the Detroit corridor with fully dedicated on-site product sales, service and applications engineering expertise, as well as calibration services that are A2LA accredited to the ISO17025 standard. Construction is expected to be completed in September 2011.

Notes Kistler North America Managing Director, Nick Wilks, “A growing demand for Kistler products within the North American automotive sector has led to the decision for our new Detroit area technical support facility. The combination of our recently acquired new product technologies, combined with the longtime strength of our brand and product portfolio, allow us to now offer a number of state-of-the-art measurement capabilities that are not available outside of Kistler group companies. In parallel to our plan to further invest in the success of our Detroit area customers, Kistler is also further expanding our Buffalo, NY, area manufacturing facility. We look forward to providing continued updates on these developments in the months ahead.”

In addition to supporting the measurement technologies of Kistler North America, the new Detroit area facility will house both the recently acquired KT North America, a manufacturer of onboard, off-board and in-dummy data acquisition systems and software for legislative and safety testing applications; and Corrsys-Datron (CDS), a manufacturer of optical sensing technologies to measure vehicle dynamics parameters such as longitudinal speed and distance, lateral speed, slip angle, dynamic camber angle and ride height. In addition to optical sensors, CDS offers measurement steering wheels, fuel flow meters, custom accelerometers and gyro modules, as well as wheel positioning systems, pedal force measurements, data acquisition devices, GPS systems and microwave speed sensors.