At the end of last year, Novelis Deutschland GmbH has gave Tenova the Final Acceptance Certificate for its aluminium automotive Finishing line at the Nachterstedt Plant in Germany.
Located adjacent to Novelis' existing rolling mill and the world's largest aluminium recycling centre, the $85 million global investment will increase annual production capacity by 120,000 metric tons of automotive sheet and will provide global customers with high-quality automotive sheet of alloys used in lightweight vehicle structures and body panels.
The line is processing automotive aluminium coils with a thickness range from 0.7 up to 2.7mm and a width range from 800 up to 2100mm. Its annual capacity is 120,000 tons and the process speed is 80 m/min. The line is equipped with a double pay off reel section converging to a stitcher unit; an entry vertical looper, the thermal section with entry bridle roll group, floating furnace with cooling section and exit bridle roll group; a chemical section with acid etching, spray passivation and a special squeegee roll coater unit; an exit horizontal looper, the re-heater and a double winding section with auxiliary devices.
The newest finishing line made by Tenova in Nachterstedt was built to serve materials to first class automakers such as Jaguar Land Rover, BMW and others. Automakers increasingly turn to aluminium to achieve better fuel efficiency and reduce CO2 emissions in their vehicles. Automotive sheet coming out from Novelis heat treatment lines, made by Tenova, can be found in more than 180 different vehicle models in production today.
