Tata Steel has opened a new high-tech robotic welding line at its Automotive Service Centre in Wednesfield, West Midlands – the largest in the UK. One of only a few in the world, the new robotic welding line trebles the site’s capacity to produce tailor-welded blanks – special sheets of steel made from different thicknesses. These steel parts – often used for car door panels – enable manufacturers to make lighter vehicles with lower emissions, while boosting miles per gallon.
The international steel producer stated that the new production line is the fastest, biggest and most efficient in the UK. It can weld more than a thousand car parts every hour with the steel being shipped to car makers across the UK, and new orders now being won in Germany, France and the Netherlands.
Tata Steel plays a key role in the UK automotive manufacturing industry which last year built 1.7 million cars, almost 80% of those being exported. The new line is the latest phase of Tata Steel’s £20 million investment in the site where it employs 525 people and also supplies steel to key industrial markets such as construction, mining and earth-moving equipment as well as domestic appliances.
Bimlendra Jha, Chief Executive of Tata Steel’s UK operations, said: “Our Wednesfield site is the largest steel distribution and processing facility in the country, and the only UK facility of its kind supplied by a domestic steel mill. This investment in the latest technology means we remain at the leading edge of automotive steel supply in the UK.”
Malcolm Boyles, Managing Director Distribution UK & Ireland, said: “The latest investment in the Automotive Service Centre greatly increases our capabilities and means we can offer our automotive customers a complete, highly-specialised service. It will also support our export business to Germany. Our unique capability, not currently present in the highly competitive German market, offers design and manufacturing freedom for the premium brand manufacturers there.”
Source featured image: Tata Steel
