Exlabesa has awarded a contract to SMS group for the supply of a 71 MN short-stroke extrusion press of front loader design. With this new acquisition, Exlabesa plans to operate 27 extrusion lines including five state-of-the-art SMS extrusion presses at its nine production facilities. The new press will be installed at the company’s Padron site in Spain. It will be the largest press in the Iberian Peninsula. The plant is scheduled to go on stream at the beginning of 2024.
“Lighter and, at the same time, safe structural designs, low fuel consumption, and reduced emissions for sustainable mobility are today’s drivers for using high-strength aluminum profiles. With our new, large extrusion press, we intend to double our production output for large profiles and secure the availability of the plant. Furthermore, we will be able to offer new profile cross-sections and widths that were not possible before and strengthen our position as market leader in the European aluminum industry,” says Francisco Quintá, founder of Exlabesa.
The new extrusion press will be used mainly for the production of profiles for the growing electromobility market. Also, the company plans to produce extruded profiles, up to 620 millimeters wide, for truck superstructures as well as profiles intended for railway carriage manufacturing. This new investment will allow Exlabesa Building Systems division to produce unique architectural solutions, enabling them to target the most demanding bespoke façade projects.
Billets with a diameter of 16 inches (406 millimeters) and a maximum length of 1,800 millimeters that are manufactured in-house will also be utilized. Exlabesa produces the aluminum billets required for this in its own recycling plant, using equipment supplied by Hertwich Engineering, an SMS group company.
The front-loader press will be built based on the latest SMS group design. The control concept for the new extrusion press is identical to that implemented in equipment already supplied. Thanks to the EcoDraulic concept, a reduction in energy consumption of up to ten percent can be achieved. The system, with its intelligent, demand-oriented start/stop control function, switches off all hydraulic pumps that are not required during the extrusion process.
“We are proud to support Exlabesa on their expansion course. Through the consistent use of optimized plant technology and the expansion of its portfolio to include Spain’s largest extrusion press, Exlabesa is growing into one of Europe’s leading extrusion press plants,” says Hans-Uwe Rode, Sales Extrusion Presses, SMS group, enthusiastically.
