Voith Industrial Services’ new “multi-million pound” wheel and tyre assembly plant in Coventry – claimed to tbe the most technically advanced in the UK – is to be officially opened in September, the supplier said.
The plant was developed to meet growing demand from customers including Jaguar Land Rover and Vauxhall.
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It will replace an existing factory nearby where wheel and tyre assembly has been carried out for more than 30 years.
The new plant is over 50% larger, at 150,000 square feet and new automation allows wheel and tyre assembly in 12 seconds compared to 20.
The new line can handle up to 1,000 different derivatives of wheels and tyres and produce almost a million assemblies per year on a two-shift basis or 1.5 million with three shifts.
Work on the new facility, which will employ about 80 people, started in May last year. The installation of the 90-metre assembly line, which has 16 work stations, began in January this year, and several weeks of extensive commissioning to handle the current 700 wheel and tyre derivatives has now been completed.
Transfer of a line from the existing facility will begin in July. The two lines combined will have the capacity to produce around 2.5m assemblies per year on three shifts.
Assembly of wheels and tyres for Jaguar Land Rover has already started and will gradually increase over the next few weeks.
