Maximum productivity thanks to minimum downtimes

Since 1990 ALRON Lda. has been part of the RONAL GROUP. The plant in Portuguese Murtede supplies the production facilities with tools and moulds for low-pressure aluminium casting.

As a manufacturer of quality light alloy wheels the RONAL GROUP supplies virtually all big car manufactures from its base in Swiss Härkingen. The wheels from the company that was founded in 1969 impress with their first class design and high standards of quality. The RONAL GROUP employs over 6000 people worldwide at its in total 19 locations. The Portuguese company ALRON Lda located in Murtede has also been part of the corporate group since 1990. It produces the tools and moulds needed for the low-pressure casting of aluminium and delivers them to product facilities spread all over the world. The sophisticated production is carried out with the expertise of its 74 specialists and a high-performance machine park that includes 16 machine tools from DMG MORI.

The numerous process steps reflect just how complex it is to manufacture light alloy wheels: aluminium is first melted and then blanks formed in a low-pressure casting process. These blanks undergo an x-ray control before being released for the next manufacturing steps. Heat treatment, mechanical processing, manual finishing and finally surface treatment round off the process steps. A key part of production is tool and mould making, which is carried out in-house, by the RONAL GROUP at its main plant in Switzerland and ARLON in Portugal. The location in Härkingen is responsible primarily for development, while the Portuguese plant manufactures all the tools and moulds for the production facilities to be found all around the world.

The light alloy wheels of the RONAL GROUP are not only an eye-catcher, they also contribute greatly to the safety of the car.

“The accuracy and reliability of the machines are an important mainstay in our daily business”, is how Fernando Silva, Production Manager ALRON, explains the many years of continuous cooperation with the machine tool manufacturer. The latest investments in production include a DMC 125 U duoBLOCK, a DMC 125 FD and a CTX beta 1250 TC. For Fernando Silva the diversity of the machine park is a decisive factor: “It means we can respond quickly and produce even complex components economically as well as in low tolerance ranges – often in a single setup.” In this way they meet the high quality demanded of the moulds as well as the short delivery times.

For ALRON the high demands placed on DMG MORI as a machine supplier are a direct consequence of the RONAL GROUP’s business development. “By 2019 we intend to expand our current production of 18 million light alloy wheels significantly”, explains Andreas Dusold the aims of the company. This would also mean a sustained expansion of the capacities of our tool and mould making operations. “In other words: we will work even more flexibly and reduce our throughput times in future”. And DMG MORI will continue to play a key role within the framework of this growth: “Because if we wish to keep a competitive edge on the market, we will also have to expand where production is concerned.”