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LAND ROVER CHOOSES STADCO'S ALUMINIUM PRESSING CAPABILITY FOR NEW RANGE ROVER SPORT
The ability to press large aluminium outer body panels has helped Stadco, one of Europe's leading automotive body-in-white specialists, secure a contract to supply Land Rover with panels for its new Range Rover Sport model, being launched this summer. The new contract follows a successful year which has also seen Stadco supply a number of pressed steel and aluminium body panels for Land Rover's highly acclaimed new Discovery 3. Stadco will supply a number of major aluminium skin panels for the Range Rover Sport direct to Land Rover's Solihull plant from its new state-of-the-art pressing facility at Castle Bromwich, the largest independent press facility in the UK. Commenting on the contract win and how Land Rover have benefited from Stadco's combined press shop expertise and extensive experience of working with aluminium, Dave Jarrett, Stadco Group Technical Engineering Director, said: 'Compared to steel, aluminium pressings are more technically challenging and pose particular manufacturing issues. Thanks to our pioneering work on vehicles such as the Discovery 3 and the all-aluminium Jaguar XJ saloon, we have gained valuable experience and are confident that other vehicle manufacturers who are increasingly turning to aluminium for use in niche and luxury production vehicles will benefit from this knowledge.' Body panels for the Range Rover Sport will be pressed at Stadco's Castle Bromwich site in the Schuler press line, which is also used to press parts for the Discovery 3. Importantly, the Schuler press line has the specialist features required to produce the large complex outer and inner panels needed to meet Land Rover's specific design requirements for both models. Mr Jarrett continues: 'The Schuler press line is also fully enclosed and is fronted by a blank washing machine and reoiler, which removes the transit lubricant applied to the blanks, which aluminium is very sensitive to, and reapplies lubricants on the line where necessary for the pressing process.' Stadco has successfully completed pre-production trials and is now gearing up to meet the ramp up in volume as the Range Rover Sport nears its launch. The Schuler press line at Castle Bromwich will operate two shifts, five days a week to meet the estimated demand for pressed panel parts for both the Discovery 3 and Range Rover Sport in 2005. Constructed on the former Dunlop site, Stadco's Castle Bromwich plant has enjoyed considerable investment since it opened in March 2004. Importantly the investment has allowed Stadco to engineer the facility so that it is fully compatible with the largest press shops - known as PG1 facilities - of Ford PAG as well as other vehicle manufacturers. Mr. Jarrett concludes: 'We can now offer vehicle manufacturers state of the art PG1 capacity at Castle Bromwich in order to quickly overcome any capacity constraints or to support new model programmes.'
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