Volvo Cars invests in new press hardening furnaces from AP&T

Volvo Car Body Components in Olofström, Sweden, has ordered two new multilayer furnaces from AP&T for the production of press-hardened automotive components. Installation is planned for summer 2022.

The furnaces will be integrated into one of the existing press-hardening lines that AP&T delivered to Volvo in Olofström in 2015 and 2016. AP&T was responsible for all integrated equipment in that order, except for the actual furnaces.

“The investment increases our furnace capacity, which offers the opportunity to manufacture larger volumes and gives us greater flexibility in production,” said Jonas Claesson, project manager and maintenance engineer at Volvo Car Body Components. “We are also gaining a more energy-efficient process at the same time that contributes to more sustainable production.”

“Our next generation of furnaces has a very stable design and are simple to maintain,” said Pär Mickos, product manager furnace systems at AP&T. “For example, the heating elements can be replaced much more quickly now, which means shorter downtime that can free up many hours of valuable production time.”

The multilayer design also has a smaller footprint than traditional roller hearth furnaces. If an operational interruption occurs, one furnace layer can be turned off while the other layers continue to be used as normal.