The Advantages of Aluminum Chassis Castings Over Steel. High pressure die casting is the process used to make aluminum die cast parts and chassis castings. This process is now becoming more and more popular in several major manufacturing industries because …
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World Auto Parts Suppliers look to USA
Global auto suppliers are still looking to the United States for growth, despite the North American industry’s recent struggles.
Mexico City’s Grupo Bocar is building a third injection-molding plant for its Plastic Tec group. Grupo Bocar was promoting its capabilities at the Management Briefing Seminars.
Italian auto suppliers, meanwhile, are touting their knowledge of Fiat S.p.A. Fiat took charge of Chrysler Group in June.
Fiat and Chrysler “are in an early limbo stage now, but there are opportunities. It is going to happen,” said Luigi Giachino, business development manager for Mecaprom Technologies Corp., of Bergamo, Italy, during an interview at the forum yesterday.
Mecaprom has opened its first suburban Detroit office. It is looking for a partner in the region. It wants to combine its knowledge of small engine development with Fiat with an established North American supplier.
The company is part of an outreach program through the Italian American Alliance for Business and Technology. The alliance centers around suppliers in Turin, Fiat’s home, and wants to make connections with Chrysler Group and its supply base.
Many of the alliance companies have had business in North America but expect to build on that now that Fiat will be working with Chrysler Group on future small vehicles, said alliance President Massimo Denipoti.
Grupo Bocar already is a direct supplier to U.S., European and Japanese carmakers with business units producing aluminum die cast parts, machined parts and plastics.
Plastic Tec made the first in-mold application of a textile skin for an auto interior part in North America for the Volkswagen Jetta. Jaime Puente, office manager at the supplier, said it also makes air vents for BMW’s plant in Spartanburg, S.C., replacing auto parts previously made in Europe.
Die Casted Aluminum Auto Parts
Die Casted Aluminum Auto Parts. Aluminum Auto Parts are becoming very popular among car manufacturers all over the world. Using aluminum has proven to be better compared to using other types of metal such as steel because of its properties. First of all, aluminum as just as strong and durable, if not even stronger and more durable, than steel, secondly aluminum weighs significantly lower than steel of the same size. In fact, Aluminum Car Parts weighs only a third of the same steel parts, making it easier to handle and adding less weight to the car. Aluminum can be mined almost everywhere in the world making it a cheap metal as well. Lastly, Aluminum Auto Parts can be die casted to meet demands for bulk orders.
The manufacturing process known as die casting is perfect for making small sized parts as well as medium sized parts. The finish of the product is amazing as the dimensions are accurate and the surface finish great. In other words, the resulting parts are high standard and consistent each time. This is because Aluminum Auto Parts are made first by liquefying the aluminum. The resulting liquid metal is then injected into molds, its crevices will give the liquid its new shape. Applying pressure of around 1,500 PSI to 30,000 PSI, the liquid is forced into every nook and cranny of the mold. This increases the accuracy of the product’s dimensions. The molds are then set aside to cool for a while and once they are opened, the Aluminum Auto Parts are finished.
Kinetic Die Casting is a Los Angeles die casting company that manufactures aluminum and zinc parts. If you would like more information, please visit our website:Kinetic Die Casting Company
Telsa Motors Electric Cars Scores
Last year Tesla Motors scored a nice coup with former Chrysler executive Mike Donoughe as Tesla’s new Vice President of vehicle engineering and manufacturing. Now they’ve scored big again with the hiring of highly-respected and former GM, BMW and Audi exec, John Walker.
The electric-car company also hired an exec in the communications department from YouTube, Ricardo Reyes. Finally, a spokesperson from Tesla recently said they will be looking to hire 150 more employees–most in engineering from the automotive industry.
Kinetic Die Casting is a Los Angeles die casting company that manufactures aluminum and zinc parts. If you would like more information, please visit our website:Kinetic Die Casting Company
Auto Parts Suppliers Mexico and Italy
TRAVERSE CITY, MICH. — While the North American auto industry may have been taking a series of economic hits, international auto suppliers are still looking to the U.S. for future growth.
Mexico’s Grupo Bocar is building a third injection molding plant for its Plastic Tec group, and headed north to the auto industry’s Management Briefing Seminars, being held Aug. 4-7 in Traverse City, to promote its capabilities.
The Mexico City-based company already is a direct supplier to U.S., European and Japanese-based carmakers. It has three business units producing aluminum die cast parts, machined parts and plastics. It came to Traverse City to boost its profile and show off its capabilities.
Plastic Tec currently has plants in Mexico City and Lerma, Mexico, with a combined 80 injection molding presses, ranging in size from 25 to 1,600 tons. The new plant, which is now under construction in San Luis Potosi, will add another 25 to 30 presses.
“We are not a shoot and ship company,” said Jaime Puente, office manager. “We have state-of-the-art equipment and facilities.”
Plastic Tec made the first in-mold application of a textile skin for an auto interior part in North America for Volkswagen AG’s Jetta. It makes air vents for BMW AG’s assembly plant in Spartanburg, S.C., replacing parts previously made in Europe, Puente said.
Italian auto suppliers, meanwhile, are touting their knowledge of Fiat SpA — a relationship that takes on added importance now that Fiat has purchased a controlling interest in Chrysler Group LLC of Auburn Hills, Mich.
“[Fiat and Chrysler] are in an early limbo stage now but there are opportunities it is going to happen,” said Luigi Giachino, business development manager for Mecaprom Technologies Corp., of Bergamo, Italy, in an interview at the Management Briefing Seminars in Traverse City.
Mecaprom recently opened its first Detroit-area office, in Plymouth, Mich., and it is looking for a partner in the region that it can team with to combine its knowledge on small engine development with Fiat.
The company is just part of an outreach from auto suppliers in Italy through the Italian American Alliance for Business and Technology. The alliance of auto suppliers located around Turin, Italy — which is home to Fiat — wants to make connections with Chrysler and its supply base.
Many of the alliance companies have had business in North America in the past, but expect to build on that now that Fiat will be working with Chrysler on future small vehicles, said Alliance President Massimo Denipoti.
Kinetic Die Casting is a Los Angeles die casting company that manufactures aluminum and zinc parts. If you would like more information, please visit our website:Kinetic Die Casting Company
New Supplier Cerion Buys Bankrupt Metal Auto Parts Makers
DETROIT — Rising from the ashes of three bankrupt auto parts manufacturers in the stamped- and cast-metal component sector is Cerion LLC, a new manufacturer coming to life through acquisitions that could be capable of generating nearly $1 billion in revenue.
Suburban Detroit-based Cerion and parent company Revstone Industries LLC of Paris, Ky., have since December acquired the die-cast metal component business of Contech LLC, almost all the assets and operations of fine blanking and metal stamping firm Precision Parts International Inc. and, on July 14, the assets of castings producer Intermet Corp.
Revstone is headed by George Hofmeister, a Kentucky industrialist with a track record of executing automotive deals in Detroit and the Midwest.
Contech’s castings business generated revenue of $156.7 million in 2008. PPI posted revenue of $141 million from January to October last year, and Intermet posted revenue of about $310 million in the 12 months ending July 31, 2008, according to records from the companies’ bankruptcy cases.
Each of the metal stampings and castings suppliers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy between August 2008 and January 2009 and failed to reorganize and emerge intact.
For about $43 million, Revstone and Cerion were able to pick up at least 20 manufacturing operations throughout the U.S. and Mexico and assume supply contracts with General Motors, Ford Motor Co., Chrysler Group LLC, Toyota, Honda and BMW.
The companies also landed work with large tier-one suppliers such as American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc., Delphi Corp., Continental Automotive Systems Inc., Dana Corp., TRW Automotive Holdings Inc., BorgWarner Inc. and many others, according to bankruptcy court documents.
Cerion also gained four plants in Michigan and one in Mexico when it acquired Hillsdale Automotive from EaglePicher Corp. in December, renaming the company Metavation. Hillsdale posted revenue of about $100 million in 2007, according to a press release about the deal.
According to a June press release announcing Cerion’s selection of P2R Associates as the company’s public relations firm, Cerion was officially formed following the Hillsdale acquisition.
In the release, Cerion was described as a “privately held American manufacturing company focused on acquiring and operating small and medium-sized precision component manufacturing operations to serve automotive and other manufacturing industries in the U.S.”
Cerion CEO Dave Doster declined to comment for this story through spokesman Gordon Cole, president of P2R Associates.
While details about the company are sketchy, one thing is clear: the market the company is entering is rough-and-tumble.
“The casting sector has experienced a large number of failures over the last five years,” said Craig Fitzgerald, a partner and automotive supplier consultant at Plante & Moran PLLC in suburban Detroit. “That’s been the rule, rather than the exception.”
High, often volatile prices for raw materials such as steel, excess capacity, low volumes, price pressures and sourcing from low-cost countries such as India and China have squeezed the sector for much of the decade, Fitzgerald said.
Buying the firms out of bankruptcy may give the new owners an edge their predecessors lacked.
“They’re bargains, and that means continuity of the operations. There will be some consolidation, and certainly these guys can afford to close operations and consolidate and keep the good parts running and run them at a higher efficiency,” said Neil De Koker, president of the Original Equipment Suppliers Association.
Cerion and Revstone were able to acquire the desirable assets of Contech, Intermet and PPI without the burden of excessive liabilities and debts. The acquisitions also were a fraction of the likely cost a few years ago.
For instance, Contech was sold by its former parent SPX Corp. in 2007 to Marathon Automotive Group LLC for $147 million. Cerion picked up Contech’s castings division, roughly half the business, for $13.5 million.
The potential fate of a company growing rapidly through acquisition can be seen with such companies as Noble International Ltd. and Lear Corp.
Both used acquisitions to vault themselves up in the auto supplier hierarchies but took on significant debt in the process. When revenue plummeted along with car and truck production volumes, the companies could not service their debt, went into default and eventually filed for bankruptcy.
Source: Crain’s Detroit Business
http://www.mema.org/publications/articledetail.php?articleId=17795
Kinetic Die Casting manufactures die cast parts for their customers. If you would like to know more about what is die casting or if you would like a quote, please visit our website:Kinetic Die Casting Company
