Page 30 - Best of 2016 English

30 CUSTOMERS
Hooked: Body parts waiting to be shipped
Asporty design, 510 horsepower and a maximum speed exceeding the 300 km/h mark: e Mercedes-AMG GTS is a dream vehicle. Salzgitter Automo-
tive Engineering GmbH & Co.KG (SZAE) con- tributes side walls and structural elements to its production.
SZAE was founded in 1986 and has belonged to Salzgitter AG since 2001. With its 230 employees, it is an established name in the automotive supply industry as a specialist for sheet metal forming in body construction. It manufactures production series tools, elements and components for small and medium-sized series, as well as tools, elements and components for concept cars and prototypes made of steel and aluminum.
Vehicles with that certain something are far from uncharted territory for SZAE. e rm already produced body shell elements, including doors and fenders, for the around 450 exemplars of the Bugatti Veyron. e Bentley luxury brand remains a steady customer. Jürgen Schmalzriedt, SZAE Technical Director, explains, “We are pressing 85 components for the Mulsanne model, including the roof, hood and side element. We are also involved in the Flying Spur and Continental models with various series steel and aluminum components.” Porsche is having SZAE cut out and shape the openings for the charging current con- nection in the right side wall for its hybrid model of the Panamera.
Step by step and with patience to the optimal pressing tool
Before automakers start a car’s series production, they conduct tests on numerous prototypes. “For example, we supplied the side elements for the pro- totype series for the current VW Golf,” says Knut Westpfahl, SZAE Commercial Director. SZAE also builds the tools for this themselves, but they are modi ed according to the customer speci cations until the plates are ready for production. “Some- times we press only twenty copies, and then wait until, for example, the vehicle tests, then we change the tools as requested, press a subset of the side elements again, and so on.“” Each day six or seven tractor trailers loaded with parts ranging from ve centimeter long brackets to ve meter long body shell elements leave the SZAE grounds is in- cludes assemblies such as the rocker panel for the Bentley Mulsanne, as well as complete large-series tools that series manufacturers have ordered for their own pressing plants.
e diversity in the product range, with its di erent cycles and runtimes, is important for con- stant capacity utilization at the assembly sections. Knut Westpfahl is optimistic about the coming years. “I think that the level of inquiries from the automakers will remain high due to the expanding variety of models, in spite of the increasing virtual- ity levels in the model planning.”