Czech Republic – The OEM has begun construction on the M4 hall and next spring will install a servo press line to produce aluminium body panels – introducing a new capability to the site. The €86m ($93.6m) facility will come online in February 2016.
Costing €19.5m, the new hall will be constructed on the site of the old M4 building and will cover 11,600 sq.m. The PXL 2 servo press line will be able to produce large aluminium parts efficiently owing to an energy recovery system; Skoda says it will consume 15% less energy than conventional presses in continuous operation.
“The new press shop will be making our production a great deal more environmentally friendly, efficient and forward-looking,” said Michael Oeljeklaus, Skoda’s board member responsible for Production and Logistics. “Just like the PXL 1 [installed two years ago], the new facility will make a significant contribution to sustainable production at Mladá Boleslav.”
Skoda claims its new facility will be “one of the most modern of its kind in Central Europe", comprising 14 decentralised servo-motors which will ensure that production is uninterrupted. The individual processes on the PXL line can be adjusted more flexibly than previously via the motor-driven press system, says the OEM, and tool changeovers will take just three minutes.
