China National Heavy Duty Truck Jinan Power Co. Ltd. (CNHTC), China, has placed orders with SMS Meer, a company of the SMS group, Germany, for the supply of two closed-die forging lines.  These facilities, from SMS Meer??s Eumuco Hasenclever Closed-Die Forging Division, are intended to be used for the forging of truck crankshafts, front axles and stub axles. The fully automated main presses in the forging lines are a 12,500-t wedge press and an 8,000-t eccentric press. Also fully automated are the robots used for transporting the material to the two presses. The scheduled production rate is between 400,000 and 450,000 parts per year, depending on the line.

The wedge press of size KP 12,500 has been designed for the forging of longitudinally oriented pieces such as crankshafts and front axles. It is suitable for the forming of these components owing to its high transverse rigidity and resistance to tilting and to the extensive table load resulting from these characteristics.

On the eccentric press of size MP 8,000 truck stub axles of weights up to 50 kg are forged. The pressure rod width and the ram width of the eccentric press are in a ratio of almost 1:1. This provides a high working accuracy when forging in several forming stages.

SMS group is, under the roof of the holding SMS GmbH, a group of companies internationally active in plant construction and mechanical engineering for the steel and nonferrous metals industry. It consists of the two Business Areas SMS Demag and SMS Meer, which jointly form SMS metallurgy. In 2007, some 8,000 employees worldwide generated a turnover of about EUR 3.0 bn.

SMS Meer is supplying the engineering for the complete closed-die forging lines, comprising the higher-level control system with all auxiliary units, the die holders and die design, the gripper technology for robot automation, and the entire process know-how. The forging lines ordered by CNHTC will be erected in the new works in Jinan (Shandong Province) which is currently being built. Production is
scheduled to start in mid-2011.

CNHTC is the successor to the Jinan Automobile Works (JAW), founded in 1935, and today is one of China''s largest manufacturers of utility vehicles, with around 20,000 employees. More than 100,000 utility vehicles were produced in 2007, spread over several brands.  For the Closed-Die Forging Division, the two orders from China represent a new reference project in ??the Middle Kingdom??, owing to their great magnitude.