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Tata Steel Completes Dudley Strip Rolling Expansion with New Sheet Leveler
09/14/2011 - Tata Steel’s installation of a £500,000 state-of-the-art leveler at the company’s Dudley plant will complete an ongoing investment program to upgrade that facility’s hot rolled strip processing capabilities.
Tata Steel is installing a £500,000 state-of-the-art leveler at the company’s Dudley plant in the West Midlands, completing an ongoing investment program to upgrade that facility’s hot rolled strip processing capabilities.
The new leveler – which features a design developed by industrial equipment manufacturer Heinrich Georg in conjunction with Tata Steel’s research and development team – will de-coil, cut to length and fully flatten hot rolled steel coil in thicknesses of 3 to 5 mm and in widths up to 2 meters.
Product processed by the new leveler will be used to supply premium products to Tata Steel’s lifting and excavating clients, meeting the increasingly exacting quality requirements in the manufacture of forklift truck frames, wheels, agricultural equipment, trailers and excavators.
The Georg machine will ensure precision leveling of the steel strip and, together with a flying shear that was installed last year, will cut it into predefined lengths. The new leveler, which is due to come on stream in January 2012, complements an existing heavy leveler that was commissioned in 2009. The addition completes a production line capable of cutting material up to 12.5 mm thick, with the possibility to extend this to 15 mm in grades of up to 550 tensile strength. The completed line, along with associated warehousing improvements, will bring Tata Steel’s investment in the Dudley site in recent years to £2 million.
“The lifting and excavating sector has shown positive growth this year and is forecast to continue growing into next year,” said Terry Bennett, Marketing Manager, Lifting and Excavating. “We’ll be facing demand for greater volumes from customers who also require products that meet exceptionally high standards. The new investment at Dudley will mean Tata Steel is best placed to meet this demand.”
Tata Steel’s Lifting & Excavating sector is the division of Tata Steel dedicated to supplying material for construction and earth moving equipment (CEME), mining, cranes and fork lift trucks.
Expansion of the Dudley plant’s hot rolled strip processing capabilities follows another project by Tata Steel to expand capacity in quenched and tempered plate at its Clydebridge plant in Scotland. This investment, which is worth £8 million, will also enhance the quality of products supplied to the lifting and excavating sector, among others.
The European operations of Tata Steel (formerly known as Corus) comprise Europe's second-largest steel producer. With main steelmaking operations in the UK and the Netherlands, it supplies steel and related services to the construction, automotive, packaging, lifting and excavating and other demanding markets worldwide.
Tata Steel is one of the world’s top ten steel producers. The combined group has an aggregate crude steel capacity of more than 28 million tonnes and approximately 80,000 employees across four continents.
