HAMILTON — The current expansion project at ThyssenKrupp Bilstein of America is only the beginning of the growth the company hopes to have in future years, said its President and Chief Executive Officer Fabian Schmahl.

ThyssenKrupp Bilstein, a manufacturer of automobile shock absorbers, is in the middle of a project to bring new technologies and products to its Hamilton headquarters on Berk Boulevard from its parent company in Germany.

The project — first announced in May — will create 60 jobs, for which hiring has started, and cost at least $5.9 million mostly for equipment, up to $500,000 more for infrastructure improvements and more on training and product development, Schmahl said. That includes added equipment for its prototype laboratory.

The technologies and equipment that go into place over the whole 24 to 30 month time frame will make it that much easier for ThyssenKrupp Bilstein to expand technologies and products in the future, Schmahl said.

The benefits to the community start with job creation, he said.

“More important, we’re talking about good quality paying jobs in manufacturing, but also for our engineering group, quality, purchasing,” he said.

Every job created has a certain multiplier that creates jobs in the community. He also said Hamilton was always a manufacturing town that lost many jobs over the years.

“We also hope that we’re kind of like bringing some pride back to the city and I think also proving here that it’s certainly possible here to grow and to expand,” he said.

ThyssenKrupp Bilstein is a subsidiary of ThyssenKrupp, an industrial company in 80 countries with 180,000 employees. Bilstein’s headquarters and main plant in Hamilton employs approximately 190 people, according to the company. Bilstein makes shock absorbers for most major vehicle manufacturers, including the big three automakers in the U.S. — Ford, General Motors and Chrysler—as well as Toyota, Mercedes and other original equipment manufacturers in Europe and Asia, Schmahl said.

The current expansion project will make ThyssenKrupp Bilstein the only shock absorber manufacturer of real-time damping systems in the U.S. An active system measures changes in road surface, speed and turns while someone is driving with sensors in the vehicle, giving real-time signals to the control unit so the damping part of the shock absorber changes every 20 milliseconds, Schmahl said.

“So it always gives you the perfect damping,” he said.

He expects the project to be complete by 2013 and start production of the real-time damping systems in October 2012.

Bilstein was forced to change its business model after the recession that took full force in 2008 hit the auto industry especially hard. U.S. light vehicle sales increased to a seasonally adjusted annualized selling rate of 13.6 million units in November this year, a climb up from an annualized rate of 9.1 million units in February 2009, the lowest level since the sales rate was 8.8 million in December 1981, according to IHS Global Insight, an information company.

For the past several years, Bilstein focused on employee engagement, which increased productivity, Schmahl said.

The gains in productivity helped the company grow business with existing customers and land new customers in markets such as electric cars. The productivity gains also opened the door for opportunities to expand technology and products that lead to the current project.