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CORUS COMMISSIONS NEW ALUMINIUM PRODUCTION LINE TO MEET GROWING DEMAND FROM CARMAKERS
The €55 million (euro) investment at the company’s Duffel site in Belgium, is in response to the growing demand from vehicle manufacturers for aluminium for use in specific automotive applications. The driver behind the investment for the automotive industry is the environmental benefit of reducing vehicle weight and hence fuel consumption. Corus currently supplies aluminium rolled products to Audi, BMW, Daimler, Land Rover, Michelin, Peugeot, Volkswagen and Volvo. The innovative design of the new CAPL line follows several years of extensive research and development work by Corus and allows the company more cost effectively to process the latest generation of stronger, lighter and easier to recycle aluminium. Key features include a degreasing station at the beginning of the line to remove all flitters and aluminium fines from the incoming strip, thus avoiding contamination of the aluminium surfaces, which is an important consideration for vehicle external body panels. The 63-metre long air floating furnace, the longest in Europe, can treat incoming strip at 80m/min with a temperature accuracy of ±3°C offering tight tolerances resulting in consistent material performance. A sophisticated inspection room monitors the line to ensure a constant feed of high quality aluminium strip. The line can also undertake a number of surface treatments, such as pickling, passivation and lubrication. These treatments are traditionally carried out by vehicle manufacturers in house; consequently the new line offers vehicle manufacturers substantial cost benefits. The line has also been designed to allow for additional future surface treatments, some of which are currently being researched and developed by Corus. Commenting on the investment in the new line, Johan Ameel, managing director Corus Aluminium Rolled Products, Duffel said: “Corus is committed to offering the latest material solutions, manufacturing processes and technologies to help vehicle manufacturers meet some of the issues they face today. The new CAPL line is just another example of this commitment. It will allow us to increase production of aluminium by 20 per cent over the next four years to help meet the expected growth in demand from carmakers for aluminium including specific niche vehicle applications.” This major investment at Duffel follows last year’s €1.3m (euro) investment that allowed the plant to supply a new range of cut-to-length special blank products increasingly used for the manufacture of, for example, car bonnets. In addition, earlier this year, the aluminium extrusions business became one of the first European automotive suppliers to acquire certification to the new ISO/TS 16949:2002 quality management system.
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