Corus invests in additional steel blanking lines to further enhance its automotive processing capabilities
27 Oct 2006
Corus, the international steel company, has invested significantly in its specialist service centre in Wednesfield UK, to enhance its press blanking line capability in order to meet the new challenges, expected ahead in the European Automotive Industry.
The £500,000 investment has seen the commissioning of two new lines – a narrow blanking press line and a multi strand blanking line. These new coil fed blanking lines will allow Corus to further enhance its portfolio of processing equipment and increase the company’s ability to press intricate and complex parts.
Commenting on the further investment by Corus in downstream facilities, Alan Hutchinson, General Manager of the Automotive Service Centre, said: “As well as increasing our existing blanking capacity, the new press-blanking line will also allow us to process smaller components and potentially simple first stage drawn parts, enabling us to offer our customers more added value through continuous improvement and investment”.
Mr Hutchinson continues: “Importantly, the modular arrangements of both lines mean that they are highly flexible and can be reconfigured if required, in order to meet some of the challenges that lay ahead in our industry.”
The £500,000 blanking line investment is the latest addition to over £30 million already invested by Corus in downstream automotive facilities at the Steelpark site to help meet the increasing demand from the automotive supply chain for tailor welded blanks and full-finish skin panel blanks ready for assembly. The site already boasts a comprehensive line-up of dedicated automotive processing facilities, including a 600-tonne large-bed pressing blanking line. In addition, the site features a dedicated laser welding facility which was the first in Europe to have the capability to manufacture production volumes of advanced, second-generation, non-linear Nd:YAG (Neodymium-Yttrium Aluminium Garnet) laser-welded blanks.
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