Tata Steel: It's rise of the robots as firm invests £4m - with VIDEO
For the past two decades the Steelpark at Wednesfield has been at the cutting edge of the UK's metals industry.
Now a new £4 million robot welding line is the latest in £20m of investment over the last three years.
At the same time job numbers at the site have soared past the 500 mark and more are on the way.
The new high-tech welding line is a major morale boost after a dramatic year which has seen Tata Steel's UK business put up for sale by its Indian owners and then taken off the market.
A vote from Tata Steel union members backing reform of the company's massive pension fund has been seen as a vote of confidence in a £1bn commitment from the company on jobs and investment.
The Steelpark site has seen big spending in a string of expansion and improvement schemes in recent years, with the latest seeing it equipped with one of the UK's biggest and fastest robotic welding lines.
It is based at the site's automotive service centre. The line trebles the Steelpark's capacity to produce tailor-welded blanks – special sheets of steel made from different thicknesses.
These steel parts – often used for car door panels – enable manufacturers to make lighter vehicles with lower emissions, while boosting miles per gallon.
The current panels coming off the robotic production line are going to BMW factories in the UK and Holland as inside door panels for Mini 1 and Clubman cars.
Andy Shelton is operations manager at the automotive service centre. He has worked at the Wednesfield site for 37 years, starting out as an apprentice long before it was redeveloped as the Steelpark.
The park was created from the ashes of the former British Steel Stainless Tubes factory which closed in 1995 with the loss of 500 jobs. It now employs a new generation of steel workers with about 30 apprentices and graduates on the 525-strong workforce.
Mr Shelton said: "The technology today is phenomenal. The business on the site is growing year on year and it is fantastic to see.
"The investment, for us, is great. This motivates people, it shows that Tata is willing to invest in its people and to grow its market," he said.
The new production line is the fastest, biggest and most efficient in the UK.
It can weld more than a thousand car parts every hour with the steel being shipped to car makers across the UK and new orders now being won from Germany, France and Holland.
When it hits top speed in the next couple of weeks, the line will be capable of making 2.3m tailored blank car parts a year.
Tata Steel executives were joined by Wolverhampton North East MP Emma Reynolds and her Wolverhampton South East colleague Pat McFadden when they unveiled the new line this week to representatives from about 60 businesses, including BMW, Honda and Jaguar Land Rover.
Tata Steel plays a key role in the UK automotive manufacturing industry which last year built 1.7m cars – almost 80 per cent of those being exported.
The site also supplies steel to key industrial markets such as construction, mining and earth-moving equipment, as well as domestic appliances. Its customers range from small Black Country metal-bashers to giants like Caterpillar and JCB.
The Steelpark can process more than 750,000 tons of steel a year, most of it from Tata's sites at Port Talbot, Llanwern and Shotton.
As well as the automotive centre, the 50-acre site includes facilities for handling steel in plates and coils and processing the steel for nearly all the 1p, 2p, 5p and 10p coins currently in circulation. About 14 jobs have been created as the new robot line comes into full production and the company is looking for up to 20 more experienced production operatives.
Bimlendra Jha, chief executive of Tata Steel's UK operations, said: "This investment in the latest technology means we remain at the leading edge of automotive steel supply in the UK."
Malcolm Boyles, managing director of Tata Steel's UK distribution business, said: "The latest investment in the automotive service centre greatly increases our capabilities and means we can offer our automotive customers a highly-specialised service.
"Our unique capability, not currently present in the German market, offers design and manufacturing freedom for the premium brand manufacturers there."
