FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
LINTHICUM, Md. — March 27, 2008 Hydro Aluminum’s Extrusion Americas unit has added sheet processing capabilities to its Sidney, Ohio, facility with the installation of two new high-tech machines — a TruBend 5130 press brake and a TruPunch 2020 turret press — both manufactured by TRUMPF. The additional capabilities will create up to seven new jobs at the 130,000-square-foot facility.
Hydro can now provide processed sheet aluminum for its customers in the heavy trucks, automotive and consumer durable goods markets, as well as service industries it has not yet tapped.
“New, high-tech equipment gives us the opportunity to add additional services to our capabilities, meet customer demands faster and reduce overall costs in the process,” said Jack Pell, Extrusion Americas vice president of transportation components.
The TruBend 5130 is equipped with four cylinders for faster and more accurate bends, as well as advanced drives that reduce cycle times by up to 30 percent. The TruPunch 2020 offers tool rotation up to 360 degrees on the C axis, simplifying the process by eliminating tool rotation questions. Tool change times range from less than 0.9 seconds for multitool configuration to less than 3.5 seconds for a single tool. It has a working sheet range of 100 inches x 50 inches, with a punching speed up to 420 times per minute.
With 250 employees, Hydro’s Sidney facility offers advanced fabrication and contract manufacturing services for transportation, construction and various other markets. Among the capabilities are CNC machining, punching, stamping, notching, drilling and milling, JIT delivery and line sequencing. The site features three, single-head CNC vertical machining centers; eight multi-head/table router machines; CNC rotary benders with capabilities to 6 inches in diameter; roll form and tube bending; robotic and manual aluminum welding; light assembly/complex assembly; aluminum aging (ovens), and finishing operations.
Currently, the Sidney facility is North America’s largest supplier of school bus window and door components, a major supplier of doors and related cab components to the heavy-duty truck market, and the manufacturer of innovative recreational products.
About Hydro
Extrusion Americas is a unit of Norsk Hydro, a Fortune Global 500 supplier of aluminum and aluminum products. Based in Oslo, Norway, the company employs 25,000 in more than 30 countries, and has activities on six continents. Hydro is the world’s third-largest aluminum supplier, the largest single manufacturer of primary metal and extruded aluminum products in Europe, and a leader in delivering innovative light metal solutions to the automotive and building industries worldwide.
In North America, Hydro provides aluminum solutions including supply sourcing, extrusion, finishing, and fabrication of components, as well as engineering and contract manufacturing services, for a variety of industries.
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