ATHADER ACTIVITY PICKS UP WITH SEVERAL ORDERS IN NORTH AMERICA

Gipuzkoa-based company Athader, specialised in supplying cutting lines to the steel market, has seen its pre-pandemic activity levels restored after its clients reactivated the investments put on hold last year in the automotive sector, household appliances, renewable energies, metal furniture and similar industries. According to management, the North American market, which it serves in partnership with the US-based Bradbury Group, has been a key destination for its major projects in recent times.

In Mexico, Athader recently supplied a longitudinal cutting line and a transverse cutting line to equip the factory expansion currently being carried out by the air conditioning manufacturer Nortek Global HVAC. This project is followed up by the current installation of a transverse cutting line for manufacturing formats at a domestic appliance manufacturing plant in Kentucky, United States. Management explains that they have designed a highly flexible stacker for this line, which accommodates the different types of metal pallets used by this client.

In parallel, Athader is completing the design of a new longitudinal cutting line for heavy gauge steel, which it expects to send at the end of the year to a new tube manufacturing plant being installed by a major group in Ohio (United States). The line incorporates elements specifically developed to facilitate the threading of high-resistance heavy gauge material, such as rollers for straightening strips at the circular shearing output and the input of the tighteners or spacer axes with vibration and lateral displacement. This is the third longitudinal cutting line supplied to this client, although in this case the equipment went to Canada.

This May, an order was also finalised for an aluminium coil rewinding and inspection line for installation in the United States. This is the highest value line sold to date by Athader. It includes two e-Drive Bradbury flatteners, two mechanical shears for fast off-cutting and a double rewinding system, which prevents stoppages in production at the end of the coil.

Athader’s activity has also intensified on the domestic market. The company is currently in the process of manufacturing and installing several lines and machines in service centres, such as Irestal Group and Gutser. In the latter case, the work to be conducted entails modernising two longitudinal cutting lines and a new transverse cutting line for heavy gauges, whilst for the Irestal Group, it is developing two longitudinal cutting lines and two transverse cutting lines for stainless steel at its new plant.

Athader has over 25 years’ experience as a cutting line supplier for coil processing. In its beginnings, its activity was focused in Europe and it later expanded worldwide with over three hundred installations supplied to date.