OTH Profile
SOLBLANK is a Spanish company owned by the Gestamp group with over 10 years experience in the production of sub-components using laser technology for the automotive industry. Solblank is involved in a great number of projects with the major European automotive manufacturers, such as Seat, Volkswagen, General Motors and Ford. Through these projects, important developments have been conducted in the fields of automatic production and laser welding of automotive components. The main business of Solblank is the production of tailored welded blanks for automotion industry. The capacity of the 7 full automatic laser lines reaches 7 to 8 million tailored blanks a year.

Role in the project
Solblank will help to define the specification of the system used within the project suitable for use in the manufacture of tailor welded blanks for the automotive industry by laser welding in a high volume production environment. The company will also be willing to provide a venue for site trials during the evaluation stage of work package F.

Reason for participation in project
Solblank would benefit from the reduced costs associated with production of high integrity tailor welded blanks that the project offers. Again, they see the project as providing a major innovation in NDT that will improve their business, either by buying a system directly from the SMEs or using the services of a sub-contractor SME in this project.