Cixi, China – LABCO is strengthening its global presence with a new joint venture with VDE Global Services GmbH and the China General Certification Centre (CGC). The construction of the joint state-of-the-art testing laboratory in Cixi will provide extensive testing and certification solutions focussing on automotive components, electric vehicle charging infrastructure and household appliances.

Together, the three companies will provide services to the Chinese market and the ASEAN market through the 8,000 square metre ‘CVL Laboratory’. The location of the Cixi laboratory in the Ningbo area is one of the leading regions for electromobility in China.

LABCO and VDE Global Services have been working closely together since 2013 and opened a test laboratory in Zhongshan, China, together with CGC five years later. The new joint venture now combines these partnerships and enables manufacturers worldwide to have their products tested for easier access to international markets.

‘This joint venture is a decisive step towards offering companies in China and ASEAN our testing services for electric vehicle components locally. In this way, we want to make our contribution to advancing electromobility worldwide. With CVL, we want to enable manufacturers of electric vehicle components to optimally prepare for future dynamic developments in requirements and make it easier for our customers to access international markets,’ explains Costakis Constantinou, Managing Director at LABCO.

With this strategic expansion, LABCO is setting another milestone in strengthening its activities in China. ‘Through the cooperation between the VDE, CGC and LABCO, we are combining the internationally recognised testing expertise, excellent reputation and sound market experience in the Asian region of all three partners,’ says Dr Marios Constantinou, Managing Director of LABCO.

The company is expanding the family business at the start of the year:

From 1 January 2025, Jannis Constantinou, who has a degree in economics and five years of experience in controlling, will join the management board as an authorised signatory.
Dr Marios Constantinou will remain actively involved in the company as Managing Director and will continue to contribute his experience from the automotive industry as part of the management team.
Costakis Constantinou will leave the operational business in the near future and will support the company in an advisory and supportive capacity. As company founder and managing director, he will remain a member of the management board.

The management sees this step as a traditional milestone for the company. ‘For us, continuing to run LABCO as a family business means progress and stability,’ explain Marios and Costakis Constantinou. The company is looking forward with confidence and excitement to the upcoming developments and a continued successful future.

Jannis Constantinou was born in Nordenham in 1993 and is married. After completing his bachelor’s degree in business administration, he worked in the controlling department of a medium-sized company in Hamburg.

On 27 August 2024, the parliamentary evening ‘Elbe meets Leine’ took place in Hanover. This event, organised by various stakeholders from Lower Saxony’s business and political communities, provided an excellent opportunity to promote dialogue between companies, political decision-makers and associations. The purpose of the evening was to discuss current economic developments and challenges in Lower Saxony, with a focus on networking and the exchange of ideas at a supra-regional level.

The management of testing lab, represented by Marios Constantinou, took part in this annual event. The relevance of partnerships between supra-regional business and politics was particularly emphasised in order to build the future of urban and rural regions together.

‘The evening was an excellent opportunity to highlight and build the importance of valuable networks and efficient cooperation in the economic context,’ emphasised Marios Constantinou, ’We are pleased to have gained an overview of common goals and the future prospects that support economic growth potential through cross-regional projects.’

The event was characterised by intensive discussions and networking opportunities, which motivated all participants to continue to actively support the economic development of the region.

We would like to thank the reporters of the battery-news.com platform for the article about our battery test centre. We are proud that LABCO BTC is represented on this important platform – both through this article and in the Europa Battery Test Centre Atlas.

To battery-news.com: Within the battery industry, the news website is an important source of information to keep industry knowledge and overviews up to date. The platform consists of a team of experts in the respective field.

As such, it goes beyond traditional reporting and aspires to present the latest insights, technologies and innovations that are shaping the battery world.

Click here for the article: LABCO’s Advanced Battery Test Centre: Elevating EV Component Safety and Performance to New Heights

Click here for the Battery Test Centre Atlas: https://battery-news.de/test-center-europa/

The Unterweser district association and the Bremen district association are inviting to the first regional round at the sea in Bremerhaven from 3 to 5 May 2024. Participants can get to know local companies from the shipbuilding and battery technology sectors and gain insights into research into hydrogen solutions. The weekend includes an exclusive visit to a shipyard, access to what used to be the world’s largest wind turbine and specialist presentations by Dr.-Ing. Marios Constantinou, Managing Director of LABCO, the accredited test laboratory for electronic automotive components and batteries. The physical well-being will also be catered for. The event in the Havenhostel offers a location close to the city centre and is easily accessible by public transport. Members of the VDI Young Engineers can attend free of charge, while non-members pay a flat rate of €30 (excluding accommodation).

The event is also suitable for those interested in technology without professional experience.

Further information and registration: https://www.vdi.de/veranstaltungen/detail/regionalrunde-nordwest-2024

LABCO, VDE Global Services and the China General Certification Centre (CGC) announce the installation of a new test laboratory through their joint venture.

The new state-of-the-art laboratory in the city of Cixi is currently under construction and will offer a wide range of testing and certification services for the Chinese and European market on more than 8,000 square metres. The new testing programme will focus primarily on automotive components, with plans to test charging stations for electric vehicles, automotive cables and other automotive components. They also want to organise extended testing options for household devices and other components.

A successful joint venture between VDE and CGC in China has already been in existence for five years, offering various testing options. The integration of LABCO will now expand this offering and create state-of-the-art testing facilities for national and international safety testing. In the past, testing focussed on household devices, lighting and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC).

“The new joint venture makes it possible to optimally combine the expertise and advantages of both countries in order to further promote progress in the development of standardised and reliable components. We are certain that this collaboration offers great potential for innovation,” said Marios and Costakis Constantinou, Managing Directors of LABCO.

The new laboratory in Cixi is expected to open in mid-2024 and is a significant step towards efficient and standardised product testing for the automotive sector in China and Europe. It will facilitate access to global series production for Chinese manufacturers in the automotive industry and at the same time offer non-Chinese manufacturers easier market access in China. Similar to the existing joint venture between VDE and CGC, which has already successfully paved the way for household appliances and other products, the expansion by LABCO is now specifically targeting the automotive sector.

The Lower Saxony Minister of Economic Affairs, Mr Olaf Lies, Member of the Lower Saxony State Parliament (MdL), Mr Oliver Lottke, and Mr Wellbrock, Mayor of the municipality of Loxstedt paid a visit to LABCO as part of a tour of the company.

LABCO’s management directors gave the guests a comprehensive introduction to the company, followed by a detailed tour of the laboratories, during which the employees presented their activities. Interesting discussions on technical topics, in particular Mr Lies’ background as a graduate engineer in electrical engineering and electronics, characterised the tour.
The tour of the company was followed by an intensive exchange on various topics, including the attractiveness of the company’s activities and the site infrastructure.

The management directors of LABCO considers the visit and the political interest as an important statement regarding the mutual regional commitment. “We look forward to future, equally successful meetings and further discussions,” commented Marios and Costakis Constantinou, Managing Directors at LABCO.

We are opening our doors to the general public with the introduction of a 360° virtual tour of the state-of-the-art Battery Test Centre – LABCO BTC.

From now on, website visitors can experience an insight into the testing technology that tests the safety, reliability and performance of energy storage systems on a daily basis.

The virtual tour offers an insight into the equipment and performance of the LABCO BTC test systems as well as the layout of the approx. 1,200 m² laboratory area. Accordingly, visitors also get an impression of the various testing possibilities and combinations.

The virtual tour can be taken on the website of the LABCO BTC Battery Test Centre: https://www.labco.de/battery-test-center-en/?lang=en

On 14 December 2023, the Nordwest Zeitung (Nordwest Mediengruppe) published an article with insights into the wide range of testing activities at our battery test laboratory LABCO BTC. The article entitled “New test centre near Cuxhaven – batteries undergoing endurance testing: Why knowing how they age is key” underlines the importance of testing laboratories such as LABCO BTC in the sustainable and future-oriented battery industry.

The article not only highlights the innovative power and commitment of LABCO BTC, but also demonstrates the general relevance of being up to date with the latest technology in the battery industry. The topic of recycling in particular is becoming increasingly important. We would like to thank the editor Svenja Fleig for her visit, the interesting exchange and the article. The publication in the Nordwest Zeitung enables LABCO BTC to combine national interest in its activities with pride in the family business and the impressive commitment of its employees.

The article is available online at: Batteries undergoing endurance testing: Why knowing how they age is key

On 19 October 2023, the managing director, Dr.-Ing. Marios Constantinou, and the head of the department for vibration and battery testing, Stephan Schrader, will give a presentation at the AVL TechDay Battery. This year, the event will focus on the topic of “Testing and Validating Batteries”. We are happy to be an active part of the event and thank AVL for the great cooperation.
You can register for the AVL TechDay Battery at the following link: https://www.avl.com/en/events/avl-techday-battery

We look back to 08 July 2023: the date of our 20th anniversary celebration. Employees, their families and close friends gathered to celebrate the milestone “20 years of LABCO” in a suitable way.
As we look to the future, we are full of anticipation for more exciting years with LABCO. The past 20 years have only been the beginning of our journey and we are determined to reach and celebrate many more milestones.
We would like to thank everyone for their great work and support.

We hope you enjoy our video : Our 20th Anniversary Celebration.

Our 20th anniversary is an important milestone in our company’s history and we would like to take this opportunity to thank our exceptional employees, our valued customers, reliable partners and loyal suppliers from the very beginning. Without their support, commitment and cooperation, this success would not have been possible.

Our employees are the backbone of our company and we would like to thank them for their great commitment, teamwork and dedication. Their engagement has contributed to the growth of LABCO into a company that stands for quality and progress, and that has mastered the challenges of the last two decades and achieve its own goals.

Special thanks also go to our valued customers who have placed their trust in us. We are grateful for the many years of cooperation and the opportunity to meet your expectations.    We are thankful for the long-standing cooperation, their support as well as the feedback, which have helped us to continuously improve and customise our services to their requirements.

Their reliability and their commitment have helped us to provide our customers with first-class accredited and non-accredited tests for electrical automotive components and batteries.

The 20th anniversary is an occasion for us to look back at our successes, but also at the future opportunities that lie ahead. We will continue to work to successfully shape the next decades of testing together.

You can watch our anniversary video on youtube: LABCO celebrates 20th anniversary

We are pleased to announce that we now officially have an Instagram channel with the account @labco_gmbh.

LABCO’s Instagram profile serves as a platform to provide insights into the working world of LABCO and LABCO BTC. We firmly believe that building an open and connected corporate culture is of great importance, and Instagram offers us the perfect opportunity to achieve this goal.

We appreciate and thank our social media community for their engagement on Linkedin and Facebook and hope that our Instagram channel will also experience high interest and reach. We want to build an active and vivid community in which exchange plays a major role.

We are excited to inform you that Dr.-Ing. Marios Constantinou (Managing Director at LABCO) and Mr. Stephan Schrader (Department Manager for Battery and Vibration Testing at LABCO) will visit the Battery Show Europe 2023 in Stuttgart this year on 24.05.2023.

They will be presenting our battery test centre LABCO BTC and will be more than happy to explain more about our extensive laboratory equipment and numerous testing options.

Year after year, Battery Show Europe attracts professionals, experts and decision makers from around the world who are shaping the future of battery technology. It is an opportunity to network with leading companies, research institutions and other experts to share best practices, discuss current challenges and explore innovative solutions.

For more information, please visit: https://www.thebatteryshow.eu/en/home.html

This week we welcomed the members of the Wirtschaftsjunioren Cuxhaven as guests.

Marios Constantinou, himself a member of the network, and Costakis Constantinou, gave the Wirtschaftsjunioren (“junior entrepreneurs”) a direct and enlightening insight into the LABCO and LABCO BTC testing laboratories and shared the values and vision of the family business.

The meeting was a great success and interesting discussions were held. We would like to thank all the Wirtschaftsjunioren Cuxhaven for their participation and look forward to further successful meetings and activities.

We would like to reveal the result of our latest project: the new homepage www.labco.de. Thanks to the advanced technology and know-how of its employees, LABCO proudly presents its qualified professionals through images and photos on the website.
The new website offers visitors a clear presentation of our extensive test portfolio. This includes not only electrical, mechanical and individual tests, but also radio frequency tests, vibration tests and environmental simulations. Visitors can also view the parameters of the four different shakers and battery test systems.
With this relaunch, the old website www.labcobtc.de was also shut down in order to integrate it into the new homepage. Our goal is for visitors to see the sister companies LABCO and LABCO BTC as a strong USP for customers.
With the addition of the Battery Test Centre to LABCO, components such as connectors, battery packs, modules or cells, cables and protection systems or other components can be tested in a variety of ways, even if they have “somewhat larger dimensions”.
Contacting us is made as easy as possible on the new website. Visitors can use the contact form or continue to call or email LABCO.
We would also like to thank all the agencies and partners who helped with the relaunch of the website. The new homepage demonstrates the company’s commitment to the continuous improvement of its services and its pursuit of excellence in the testing laboratory industry.

We are thrilled to announce that we have over 500 followers on our company LinkedIn page since last week!
We are very proud and we want thank everyone who has supported us on this platform. Your engagement, comments and feedback have helped us to better understand your needs and preferences. We are committed to providing you with valuable information about our testing services, our new equipment and many more updates about our company . We are looking forward to continuing our growing journey with all of our present and future followers on LinkedIn and we want to thank all our employees for supporting our company’s social media channels with creative ideas and progressive feedback.
For our followers and all interested linkedin-users, we are striving to keep providing you with important, informative and also entertaining content about LABCO and LABCO BTC.

From 11.10.2022 – 13.10.2022 LABCO will participate as an exhibitor at the International Suppliers Fair (IZB). After a break of several years, the trade fair will once again take place in Wolfsburg at the Allerpark exhibition centre. The IZB is Europe’s leading trade fair for automotive suppliers, as it is geared exclusively to the trade public as a target group, fully represents the automotive value chain and is a marketplace for forward-looking innovation.
This year we are once again pleased to be sharing a stand with our long-standing partner
WKM Wärmeprozess- und Klimaprüftechnik Michel GmbH & Co.KG (Hall 2, Stand 2407). In keeping with the trade fair, we will not only be presenting our new stand design and our new mugs, ballpoint pens, etc., but also our LABCO and LABCO BTC brochures in the new design. You can download these in advance as PDF files under this article. We look forward to answering your questions about our companies LABCO and LABCO BTC as well as our services, to interesting discussions and to your visit at our stand.
You can find more information about the IZB here: www.izb-online.com

LABCO Company information

LABCO BTC company information

In the blog of the “besserhier – Skilled workers marketing for the Hamburg Metropolitan Region ” project, our colleague and employee Mr Dennis Hoppen gives insights into why he chose to live on the coast and what makes working at LABCO so special. The project is being implemented by Süderelbe AG in cooperation with various districts in the surrounding area and region of Hamburg. It is also funded by Lower Saxony’s European Social Fund. We would like to thank our employee and colleague as well as #besserhier for the article.

You can read the whole article here (Only available in German): At home by the North Sea – Dennis, LABCO

Last week, a meeting of all local company managers of the “Loxpark” business park was organised.
The central topic of this meeting was the exchange of ideas for future cooperations in the Loxpark. Afterwards, further Get-Togethers were already planned, as every participant discovered much potential for collaborative plans and developments in the discussions.
We thank you and look forward to further successful meetings with LEHN Paletten GmbH, ERICH NONNE GmbH, Weser Shipstores GmbH, mh² offshore GmbHand Autohaus Klinke GmbH.

We are very pleased to announce our next big milestone, the launch of the official homepage of our Battery Test Centre LABCO BTC.

www.labcobtc.de

On the website, we introduce LABCO BTC as a company and provide first insights about our modern equipment park, which is currently under construction, as well as our wide and flexible service portfolio, which offers tests on batteries and their peripherals. Furthermore, the site contains a construction diary and a link to our companies’ news and current vacancies which we update regularly, just like the entire LABCO BTC Homepage.
The website is also available in english.
We would like to thank our partners TIRA GMBH, AVL List GmbH, WKM Michel GmbH & Co. KG and CTS GmbH for providing pictures and information about the equipment.

Mr Dr.-Ing. Marios Constantinou (Member of the Management Board) and Mr Marc Rutz (Head of Departement – Sales and Marketing) will be visiting the fair “The Battery Show 2021” in Stuttgart tomorrow. They will be presenting our new sister company, the battery testing centre LABCO BTC, and will be happy to explain more about our future service portfolio. Furthermore, we are looking forward to an informative exchange about the development of the battery technology and industry!

The Battery Show 2021

Radiohost Lars Cohrs interviews people from the community of Loxstedt and presents their stories – every month an episode of the podcast series “Bei uns in Loxstedt” is published. Our management was invited by Mr Cohrs for an interview to present our company LABCO. We met with him and told him a little about us. A big thankyou to the municipality of Loxstedt and of course to Mr Lars Cohrs for the entertaining and pleasant interview. You can find the link below the post. The episode can also be listened to via any portal that plays podcasts. We hope you enjoy listening!

8th Episode “Bei uns in Loxstedt (With us in Loxstedt)”

On 04.11.2021, the “INDUSTRIE DIGITAL für Niedersachsen 2021” conference of NiedersachsenMetall will take place in Hannover. Costakis Constantinou, Managing Director of LABCO GmbH, will give a presentation on the topic of artificial intelligence at this event.
In addition, Marios Constantinou, member of the management board, will also give a talk on the subject of infrared welding of plastics at the TECHNOMER online plastics conference at TU Chemnitz on the same date.
We are looking forward to the events and all participants.
You can find more information in the links below.

INDUSTRIE DIGITAL für Niedersachsen 2021
27. TECHNOMER

Yesterday, 09 September 2021, LABCO GmbH celebrated the symbolic groundbreaking of the new sister company LABCO BTC GmbH. The celebration was accompanied by various representatives of the press, who received the first, exclusive information about the plan to open the new company LABCO BTC GmbH. From the 3rd quarter of 2022, we will start operating LABCO BTC GmbH as a future accredited, globally recognised battery test centre. This will enable us to assess the safety, performance and reliability of batteries before their first use in series production. The construction of the building and the purchase of the testing equipment are partly supported by a funding programme of the NBank, as the state of Lower Saxony also believes in the considerably positive effects of an opening, such as the creation of jobs or clearly noticeable economic growth.
The link below contains the German newspaper-article of the Nordsee-Zeitung, which can be viewed and downloaded as a PDF.

LABCO_Spatenstich

We would like to inform you that the tax number, VAT identification number (USt-IdNr.) and registry court number (HRB number) of LABCO GmbH will change with immediate effect. The link below contains a PDF with this information for further use. Please read carefully

Information letter regarding data changes of LABCO GmbH

Since 28 July 2021, LABCO GmbH is represented on various social media channels. On these pages, you will find interesting and up-to-date information about our modern family business as well as interdisciplinary news.

You can find our Facebook and LinkedIn-pages at:

https://www.facebook.com/LABCOGmbH
https://www.linkedin.com/company/labco-gmbh/about/

We are happy about every visitor and subscriber and hope you enjoy our channels!

From 01 January 2022, LABCO GmbH will henceforth be supplied exclusively with certified green electricity, provided by EWE Vertrieb GmbH. This means, among other things, that the electricity consists of 100 % renewable energy of which the source is clearly identifiable. In this way, we are contributing to the expansion of this type of energy supply, and all of this is done in a CO₂-neutral manner – through compensated upstream emissions.

LABCO GmbH celebrates its 15th anniversary on 1 July 2018. High-quality various accredited tests, excellent machine equipment, engineers from different fields and international projects, especially in the field of automotive wiring system components, make LABCO GmbH a company with a secure future.

The constantly extended testing possibilities, the continuously growing machinery and the resulting larger number of employees are the reason for an urgently needed extension. In 2017, the management decided to expand the office and laboratory space by a further 720 m². A further 2,500 m² plot of land was purchased in the southern section. The extension will be completed in summer 2018. Just in time for the 15th anniversary.

With our new 3D profilometer we can perform fast and high-precision 3D measurements. The 3D surface measurement enables large-area observations (200 mm x 100 mm) of shape, flatness and roughness. The entire surface is measured instead of individual points, thus the analysis is possible in the entire form: profile measurement, measurement of the height difference, volume and surface calculation, roughness measurement on lines and surfaces and of course 2D measurements.

By purchasing four more climatic chambers, we were able to further advance our testing capacities in this area. With more than 25 climatic chambers of different sizes, we were able to further optimize the test procedures and test duration.

For testing individual components or entire assemblies for vibration resistance since December 2016 we have a second electrodynamic oscillator generator (Shaker) in action. In combination with our new climate chamber, tests under controlled environmental conditions are possible. Mr. Dr. Schmidt will be happy to answer your questions.

Since October 2016 we have been using a four quadrant voltage-current amplifier for tests according to LV 124. This allows tests to be carried out which require rapidly changing signals with high power. The power amplifiers ensure the required test conditions for a wide load range.

To further expand our testing capabilities our equipment has been supplemented by a power supply with an output of up to 30 000 watt. The new DC power source supplies an output current of 3000 A at a maximum voltage of 10 V and is suitable for tests with an increased current consumption, such as overcurrent tests, derating tests or short-circuit tests.

To further expand our testing capabilities our equipment has been supplemented by a power supply with an output of up to 30 000 watt. The new DC power source supplies an output current of 3000 A at a maximum voltage of 10 V and is suitable for tests with an increased current consumption, such as overcurrent tests, derating tests or short-circuit tests.

The reaccreditation by the DAkkS according to DIN EN ISO 17025 that has to be performed at regular intervals has been completed successfully. The so-called flexible accreditation was granted to some divisions. This makes it possible not only to test according to defined specifications, but also allows modifying them if needed. The updated certificate and its annex will be placed here for download as soon as it is available.

On April 9, the VDE Global Services GmbH and the LABCO GmbH established a new joint venture for testing of automotive cables and components in Suzhou/China. Since many carmakers have directed their focus on the Asian market, this decision was made in order to offer our customers in Asia a direct local service. The range of services offered includes the test of automotive cables, connectors, protection systems, etc. for obtaining a homologation or for the analysis faulty parts.

With the purchase of three additional climate cabinets, we have further improved our laboratory testing capacity. We expect this to further optimize the test processes and thus lead to a shortening of test durations.

Our new  Agilent/Keysight  E5061B offers versatile network analysis in the broad frequency range from 5 Hz to 3 GHz. A significantly improved dynamic range in the low frequency range allows the precise determination of the surface transfer impedance of cable screenings. Furthermore the capability for the measurement of passive components was extended up to 30 MHz.

Our test equipment has recently been extended by an additional climatic cabinet.
Newly listed is a corrosion test cabinet for testing the corrosion characteristics of materials to corrosive gases for tests according to IEC 60068-2-60, 60068-2-42/43 as well as ISO 21207 and more.

After unfortunately neglecting our website over the past years, it is now entirely updated and modernised. We hope this will provide you with a better overview of the tests we are able to perform at our new site. You’ll also be able to locate right contact partner for your project right away.

We urgently need more personnel. We are looking for two new employees for our test lab. You can find out more under the Career tab.

We’ve added a Keyence VHX-700FD digital microscope to our equipment line-up, enabling the capture of images with extreme definition.
We also have a new salt spray tank – ca. 1000 litre – among other things for performing tests in accordance with DIN EN ISO 9227 (DIN 50 021), NSS, AASS, CASS, DIN EN ISO 60068-2-11, VDA 621-415, VW PV 1210 (DIN EN ISO 554/23/50), DIN EN 60068-2-52.

Made it! The entire testing has moved from Brake to Stotel, on the other side of the Weser River. We are especially excited that our entire staff have remained with us and joined us in the move to the new site.

The old lab in Brake has reached its capacity for enhancement. After much consideration, we want to make a new start in the community Loxstedt. A 7400-square-meter property was acquired in Stotel’s Loxpark Industrial Zone. The construction work for two highly modern lab buildings totalling 1700 m².