Global steel giant ArcelorMittal announced that it will install two innovative production tools to produce customized heat exchangers for the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) industry in its Trévoux plant in Rhône-Alpes, France. The €450,000 investment into new steel technology will help expand and strengthen the plant's activities by supplying added-value solutions to its customers.
The Trévoux plant will be equipped with a roller and a 3,200 mm wide tube welding rail, giving the plant the ability to produce the internal tubes used in heat exchangers. Until now, the Trévoux plant had to buy tubes from specialists. Now, products will be assembled from plates that are directly supplied by the ArcelorMittal group.
According to ArcelorMittal, producing its own tubes gives the plant an important competitive advantage, since it will be able to adapt the tubes in terms of dimensions and steel quality to meet customers' requirements. The new welding machine, which welds in one step instead of two, will reduce the production process time by 40 percent.