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PrimoTECS is a quality driven company. This is not only documented by passing the renewal of the IATF-Certification in March 2021, by a quality policy which is clearly communicated inside PrimoTECS to all employees as well as by excellent quality KPIs. It is also documented by continuously rising the state of the art in quality technology which is applied in PrimoTECS production.

Cold forged shafts which are used in transmission, powertrain and hybrid or electric drive applications can exhibit different types of defects on the surface of the shaft. These can be closed or open cracks, they can be long and continuous or short, interrupted or located on edges, or even still exist on machined surfaces. Common to all these cracks is that they are non- systematic quality defects, appearing at a rate of a few per ten thousand or in even lesser incidents. The reason for these cracks is the deformation of the material in a tensile stress regimen. However, the cracks only form if one of the following three conditions exists: 1) A surface fold introduced by hot rolling of the bar, but so small that it could not be detected by eddy current testing in the steel mill 2) a segregation in the steel which leads to some brittle material structure even after proper heat treatment for cold forging or 3) a bigger inclusion near the surface which reduces the ductility of the steel. Condition 2) and 3) can not be detected by economical non-destructive testing.

Consequently, 100% visual check by skilled labour is undertaken on these types of cold forgings. Neither skills nor optimum working conditions, however, can typically completely prevent that some defective parts slip through the quality check. In order to increase the quality level, PrimoTECS has decided to apply automatic surface checks. The Avigliana plant has undertaken a project in which different methods of surface testing have been analysed. The combination of Laser-Profilometer and camera has proven to be able to detect all relevant surface defects (see Fig. 1), so this technology has been chosen for the quality check of these parts starting from May 2021.

With this investment, PrimoTECS demonstrates its willingness to invest into the highest quality technology in order to become the market leader for forged components in Europe.

Fig.1: Analysis of detection performance for different types of surface defects

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Cost-saving efforts are in the genes of the automotive industry. Saving CO2 has so far been an effort on the side of the car makers, focussing on reduction of fuel consumption when operating the vehicle. The focus is now widening on saving CO2 during production of components, too.

PrimoTECS accepts the challenge concerning both reduction efforts. In the case depicted here, both demands can be fulfilled in the same development. PrimoTECS is the market leader for hot forged outer rings produced on Hatebur machines. With a Hatebur park of three AMP 70, one AMP 50 and two AMP 30, PrimoTECS is one of the larger suppliers from these highly productive forging presse. Accordingly, PrimoTECS posesses a long-term and broad knowledge of designing components for this machine type, as well as of developing the forging processes. This knowledge was now applied pro-actively to parts running in series production in order to achieve cost- and CO2-saving.

Outer rings exhibit a disc-shaped volume in the center of the part before the piercing operation, which is the last step of the hot forging operation. After piercing, this part will be scrapped and recycled into new steel. However, reducing the weight of this lost material will increase the material efficiency of the whole forging. This leads to imminent cost-reduction. Concerning the topic of CO2-emissions: The main contribution of CO2-emissions in the production of hot forged components stems from the steel making processes. So reducing material consumption for the production of a certain forging leads to the reduction of total CO2-emission for this part. By making full use of the possibilities of finite element simulation of the forging process, engineers at PrimoTECS were able to reduce the volume of the pierced material to a minimum. The increase of press force that comes with reducing forging thickness could be kept inside the possibilities of the forging press, and other quality aspects (filling, fibre flow) were not affected. The volume of lost material can be reduced by 15%. Taking the huge number of components produced yearly into account, about 100 tonnes of steel can be saved per annum. This steel will not need to be produced, transported, heated for forging and then scrapped (more transport and subsequent recycling into new steel), saving a tremendous amount of CO2-emissions. The cost saved will form the basis of future cost estimations, increasing PrimoTECS competetiveness even more.

About PrimoTECS
PrimoTECS is a market leader in forged components. PrimoTECS operates forging processes on horizontal hot Hatebur presses in sizes ranging from AMP 30 to AMP 70 L, as well as vertical processes in hot, warm and cold forging with press forces between 230 and 3000 tons. PrimoTECS applies further value-add by turning, drilling, induction-hardening and friction welding. In 2019, 700 people created sales of 100 Mio. €, working in two plants near Torino in Italy.

Quality First

The Quality has a role of primary importance in all management and production activities of PrimoTECS. PrimoTECS strives to supply products and services that meet requirements and expectations of customers and the law mandatory requirements, in order to increase the satisfaction of our customers, shareholders and employees. These targets are pursued through the development and improvement of efficient production processes of forged steel components for the automotive industry.

Therefore, PrimoTECS undertakes in Villar Perosa and Avigliana plants to:

• Establish, implement and maintain a Quality Policy appropriate to the purpose and context of the Organization, by means of the analysis of risks and opportunities
• Promote continuous improvement for supporting strategic quality guidelines
• Develop high quality-value products and processes by promoting the use of the process approach associated with the PDCA method and risk-based thinking
• Produce products that meet own and customer’s quality requirements
• Take all necessary actions in order to prevent any product defect
• Implement the “zero defect” production policy
• Monitor and reduce the cost of poor quality
• Manage the non-conformities
• Develop training and involvement of people to promote awareness of their own contribution to the effectiveness of the Quality Management System
• Identify and assign the resources necessary for implementing the Quality Management System
• Measure the Company performances regularly and improve them in accordance to the annual improvement plan
• Ensure that the Quality Management System of its suppliers is certified IATF 16949:2016 or ISO 9001:2015, monitor the supplier performances periodically, and define development and improvement plans of the supply chain for assuring that supplied processes, products and services are in line with the customer requirements

In order to carry out these listed activities, the Quality Management System has been defined, developed, and it is continuously monitored in compliance with IATF 16949: 2016 and ISO 9001:2015.

The PrimoTECS General Management appoints the Quality Director as its representative and entrusts her with the responsibility and authority both to establish, apply and manage the Quality System, in compliance with the international standards, and to report the Quality System performances to the Management in order to allow their control and improvement.

Hot, warm and cold forging on vertical presses with press forces between 630 and 3000 tons and hot forging on Hatebur 70, 50 and 30 presses rounded of by machining processes: Only very few companies have this wide spectrum of processes at their disposal. PrimoTECS, which was born out of the two Italian plants formerly belonging to the Tekfor Group, is a new player in the European forging business. Acquired and now backed by Mutares SE in February 2020 and integrated into Mutares’ Portfoliosegment Automotive & Mobility, PrimoTECS is exceptionally financially stable, aiming for long-term customer relationship with a continuously profitable growth. PrimoTECS offers its customers the possibily to consolidate the supplier base – one single supplier being able to deliver a wide range of forgings:

• Long closed-die hot forgings on vertical presses up to 3000 tons press force: conrods, common rails, balancer shafts, axle stubs, geometrically intricate wheel hubs
• Precision forgings made by warm forging processes: CVJ components, rotor shafts, hollow transmission shafts, differential bevel gears
• Cold forged shafts for transmission and powertrain applications
• Components from Hatebur 30, 50 or 70: Wheel hub inner and outer races, gear blanks, pulleys, bearing rings

With its previous production- and development-oriented structure, PrimoTECS has only a small overhead and is able to offer its products at very competetive prices. It is located in the Torino area in norther Italy, a region with a long history of automotive and forging production with a dedicated engineering and production workforce.

Dear Business Partner,

We would like to provide you with a brief update on Covid-19 recent developments and related effects on our company’s business activities.
As newspapers are reporting, the situation is continuing being critical and the Italian government has prolonged its preventive measures until the 3rd of May 2020.

Following our letter dated 3rd of April 2020, by which we notified you about the impossibility to continue with the scheduled manufacturing activities and the inevitable shut-down of our production facilities due to force majeure, we inform that circumstances have unfortunately not changed. We do not have the permission to reopen our production facilities in Avigliana and Villar Perosa for the upcoming three weeks. As a consequence, we will not be in the position to guarantee delivery times. Of course, we are striving to make our restart in the most efficient way, that we are planning for the 4th of May 2020.

To prepare adequately our whole value-chain for this efficient restart, we do need your visibility. We would like to ask you to update within the next working-days your call-off-orders for the upcoming weeks until end of May.

Please be reassured that it is our priority to keep a transparent and profitable communication with all our valuable partners. We will therefore continue to keep you updated about any further development and actions that will be taken with respect to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Our customers are of the highest importance to us. Let us prepare for an efficient restart and let us use this difficult period to strengthen our business-partnership.
If you do have any questions, please feel free to contact us directly, we are at your disposal.

Thank you, in advance, for your understanding, trust and partnership.
With best regards,

Your PrimoTEAM
primotecs.com