Jaguar Land Rover invests £45m in Halewood plant

JAGUAR Land Rover has invested £45m in a new press line at its Halewood site.

The new Servo stamping line, will make manufacturing of the panels used to make the vehicle bodies much more efficient. The new line replaces a smaller facility which was more than 40 years old.

It is the first of its kind to be built in the UK and will be used to produce parts for other JLR manufacturing factories at Solihull and Castle Bromwich in the Midlands.

The new line is 13 metres tall and over 85 meters long. It has a combined press stamping capacity of 7,900 tonnes, making it the fastest and one of the biggest and most powerful press line across Jaguar Land Rover, stamping both steel and aluminum panels.

Installing this giant facility required a major reconfiguring of the Halewood press shop, with the plant roof raised by almost 12 metres to accommodate the new machinery. The press shop bay also had to have its footprint extended by almost 50%, compared to the previous stamping machine.

Richard Else, Jaguar Land Rover, operations director – Halewood, said: “This colossal new press line reinforces Jaguar Land Rover’s long term investment in UK manufacturing.

“Halewood is one of the most flexible, advanced automotive manufacturing facilities in Europe, producing two of the highest quality, largest selling Jaguar Land Rover vehicles to over 170 countries worldwide. This investment ensures we can make more panels, even more efficiently and will continue to do so for many years to come.”

At the end of March, Aida, the premier global manufacturer of metal stamping presses, will complete the finishing-touches to the installation.

Trials will commence in April and the facility will begin stamping panels for use across Jaguar Land Rover from the summer. By autumn the facility will be up to full speed making up to 20 strikes per minute.

The design of the Aida press also allows for faster die changes (the metal molds that form the panel shapes). Changes can be achieved in under five minutes, compared to up to 55 minutes for the largest existing mechanical Halewood press line.

The Halewood site, which employs 4,500 people, manufactures the Land Rover Freelander 2 and popular Range Rover Evoque. The plant is operating at full capacity, 24 hours-a-day, for the first time in its 50 year history. More than £230m has been invested in the North West site since 2011 by the Indian-owned company.