Tata’s Dutch tube investment secures new auto orders

Tata Steel’s tube unit in Zwijndrecht, the Netherlands, has installed custom-made and fully-automated equipment designed to produce steel tube for car suspension parts, the company tells Kallanish.

The cutting, profiling and bevelling machine is able to precisely cut and shape safety-critical steel tube used to make parts known as twist-beam axels used in many modern cars, Tata explains. With the addition of the new equipment, the company has already secured orders from important European carmakers, it claims.

The project cost €1.8 million ($2.3 million) and has taken three years to develop and deliver. It involved the sales, procurement, engineering, production and technical teams who worked closely with the equipment maker on specifications.

“The equipment is unique in several ways – it is fully automated and it can cut many sizes of tubes,” says Sanne Kramer, works manager at the Zwijndrecht site. “As well as cutting, the equipment is also able to make several other cuts, notches and bevels. These help in the final manufacturing by customers. The machine also cleans, inspects and stacks the material before it is shipped.”