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| 01 Feb 2005 | |
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Corus Automotive Service Centre’s specialist large panel press blanking capability has resulted in the company securing an additional contract to supply Land Rover with the rear door outer panels for the all new Range Rover Sport, being launched this summer. Corus will supply the shaped blanks for these panels direct to Land Rover’s Solihull plant. The contract follows a successful year which has also seen the company secure a long term contract to supply the bodyside panel blanks for the company’s highly acclaimed new Discovery 3 model. It was during the early development stages for the Discovery 3, that Land Rover first recognised how Corus’ press blanking capability could help the company meet its specific design requirements. The rear door outer shaped blanks for the Range Rover Sport are being produced at the Automotive Service Centre in Wednesfield in the UK. The shaped blanks will be pressed on the company’s 600 tonne large-bed Fagor blanking line, which also produces the body side panels for the Discovery model. The line boasts specialist tooling, designed in association with Land Rover, including an extremely heavy 26 tonne die, required to produce the shaped blanks needed to meet the Range Rover Sport’s specific design requirements. The Fagor blanking line also features an in-line oil wash facility that can clean the steel strip and then re-oil with specific oil levels, to meet specific customer requirements, ensuring a high quality product, with no contamination, helping to produce full-finish skin panel blanks ready for pressing at Land Rover’s Solihull press-shop. Commenting on the new contract, Richard Down, Commercial Manager, Corus Automotive Service Centre said: "On-going investment in our downstream facilities at the Service Centre, has resulted in unique pressing and blanking capabilities that give Corus the flexibility to meet a broad range of design patterns and requirements. Securing the contract to supply the Range Rover Sport underlines this capability to produce specialist, full-finish panels, increasingly in demand from our customers." Adrian Davey, Purchasing Manager Land Rover added: "Corus has demonstrated through the supply of bodyside panel blanks for the Discovery 3 model that they have the required tooling, production facilities and material expertise to meet the design requirements of the Range Rover Sport and Discovery 3. Importantly, despite global uncertainty about the supply of steel, Corus has also demonstrated the ability to constantly meet our specific production schedules for the Discovery which has given us complete confidence that they will do the same for the Range Rover Sport." | |
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