Finnish company Ruukki is to invest into a new surface treatment line to serve cabin customers at the Holic unit in Slovakia. The unit manufactures ready-to-assemble cabins for mobile machines such as reachstackers and forklifts for its globally-operating OEM customers.
“The investment will enable us to surface treat cabin frames at the Holic cabin plant. This, in turn, will cut logistics costs considerably and facilitate quality control in the surface treatment process. The new surface treatment facility will be able to handle welded frames and other cabin components,” says Erik Skogström, SVP, Operations, at Ruukki Engineering.
On the line, the cabin frames will be zinc-phosphated and electrophoretically primed before powder painting. The line meets the high quality and environmental criteria of the automotive industry and original equipment manufacturers. Ruukki has used a similar coating process at the Kurikka cabin plant in Finland since 2006.
The coating line at Holic will come on stream in spring 2012 and the investment is worth about EUR 3 million and should create dozens of new jobs.