At the cutting edge of technological development

Sapa Technology

Sapa Technology is the Group’s joint research and development centre. This is where you will find specialists with in-depth knowledge of the manufacture and use of aluminium. They focus
on everything from the control of alloy content to changing production processes in order to satisfy customer preferences.

Sapa Technology employs 60 specialists with backgrounds primarily in materials technology, technical physics and chemistry. Sapa Technology conducts research, literally down to the level of the atom, resulting in new alloys and products that compete successfully in the global market.

Sapa Heat Transfer is an example of how Sapa thinks and operates. As late as in the 1980s, the rolling plant in Finspång was just another rolling plant and, in fact, smaller than many others. Plate and strip were produced here for all imaginable purposes. That is still the case for Heat Transfer’s competitors. At those companies, a number of different rolled products share resources and management capacity.

Today, Heat Transfer is responsible for 16 per cent of Sapa’s sales, but when it comes to research and development, Heat Transfer utilises half of the Group’s resources.

Through its collaboration with Sapa Technology, Sapa Heat Transfer is able to meet customer requirements for increasingly thin products and to meet the ever more rigorous demands imposed for corrosion resistance and durability. At the same time, the mouldable characteristics must be maintained and the material is required to cope with increasing working temperatures.

Interesting facts: A strip from Sapa Heat Transfer can be as thin as 0.05 mm (compared with a human hair at 0.04). Other, somewhat thicker, strips may consist of as many as five alloys, which are rolled together to create the optimal end product.

Cooling Competence Centre

In collaboration with Sapa Technology, Sapa Profiles has established a competence centre that works on a broad front with the telecom and automotive industries and other sectors where there is a need to divert heat. The centre provides advanced equipment and expertise in simulation, measurement and technical analyses for cooling solutions based on aluminium profiles.

Hydroforming

Sapa began serial deliveries of hydroformed components to Volvo as early as in the autumn of 2001. Today, Sapa has knowledge and experience that is unique in the world when it comes to the hydroforming of long aluminium profiles.

The principle entails placing an extruded tube in a die. The profile is subjected to hydrostatic pressure from within, pressing it out into the form of the die. Hydroforming can be used to achieve complicated components and to make local changes such as protrusions or indentations. Hydroforming simplifies fabrication thus shortening lead times.

Friction Stir Welding

Friction Stir Welding (FSW) is another example of an area where Sapa is a world leader. The technique entails joining flush metal surfaces through the mechanical action of a rotating tool. With the effects of pressure and heat, a new, homogenous structure is achieved.

Compared with melt welding, FSW provides greater strength and less heat deformation. This means that Sapa is able to deliver panels of up to three metres in width, consisting of profiles joined, lengths in accordance with the customer’s requirements. One area of use is in side panels for trains.

Contact Sapa Technology

Sapa Technology, 612 81 Finspång, Sweden
Telephone: +46 122-17000
Fax: +46 122-12487