| Corus, the international metals group, has
announced that it is supplying Audi's new Lamborghini Gallardo with the
world's first production-ready aluminium tailor welded blank designed
to help the car maker further reduce vehicle body weight and assembly
costs. The tailor welded blank was introduced in this car in spring 2003
and Corus has now successfully supplied more than 1200 pieces.
Corus Aluminium Rolled Products (CARP) based at the Duffel plant
in Belgium, is supplying Audi with the unique aluminium blank for use
in the Lamborghini Gallardo's front wheel arches. It follows years of
research and development between the plant, the Corus Research and Development
centre at IJmuiden in the Netherlands and Audi to bring to the automotive
market a product that combines the weight advantages of aluminium with
the recognised benefits of using tailor welded blank technology.
Steel tailor welded blanks are now an established automotive manufacturing
technology already accounting, on a rising trend, for more than 15 per
cent of the average vehicle body structure on high volume models. The
new Corus aluminium tailor welded blank similarly joins by laser welding
two or more sheets of different grades and thicknesses, which have been
strategically selected to provide the optimum strength using the least
amount of material possible for specific points on a vehicle.
Vehicle manufacturers are today increasingly turning to tailor welded
blanks to help increase structural integrity while reducing vehicle component
weight for lower fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. Corus anticipates
that within the next decade 25 to 30 per cent of all steel body-in-white
car production will include tailor welded blank technology.
However unlike steel, aluminium is a more difficult material to weld,
which historically has restricted the development of aluminium tailor
welded blanks. In 2001 Corus invested in a laser welding centre in IJmuiden
which has since helped it to study and optimise the aluminium laser welding
techniques needed to develop a robust process with the consistently high
quality weld seam required to move from prototypes for test and development
into series production.
Commenting on developing the world's first production ready aluminium
tailor welded blank, Johan Ameel, director of Corus Aluminium Rolled Products
said: "We have been co-operating with Audi for years in the development
of improved aluminium qualities for vehicle bodies. Developing this further
into offering tailor welded blanks in aluminium was a challenging but
logical step."
Ameel continued: "We are confident that Audi and other vehicle manufacturers
will now maximise the full weight advantages of combining aluminium with
tailor welded blank technology to help further reduce vehicle body and
chassis component weight on future aluminium models or with specific automotive
applications."
Corus aluminium tailor welded blank products will be made both from 5000
and 6000 series alloys, which offer strong forming capabilities making
it suitable for vehicle body and chassis applications. Using a mono beam
laser system allows perfect weld quality in both alloy groups.
In addition to the tailor welded blank, the company also supplies aluminium
coil and sheet for all outer and inner panels for the Lamborghini Gallardo.
Within the market generally, Corus already supplies aluminium structural
and body parts for many of the world's leading carmakers including Audi,
BMW, Daimler Chrysler, Peugeot, Volkswagen and Volvo. Earlier this year,
the company invested €55 million in a continuous annealing and pre-treatment
line at the Duffel plant, in response to the growing demand from vehicle
manufacturers for aluminium for use in specific automotive applications.
The main driver behind this continuous investment for the automotive industry
is the environmental benefit of reducing vehicle weight and hence fuel
consumption.
This major investment at Duffel follows last year's €1.3m investment
that allowed the plant to supply a new range of cut-to-length special
blank products increasingly used for the manufacture of, for example,
car bonnets.
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