Cannock-based RSD Pressings, a supplier to the automotive industry, is targeting £750,000 of new business after investing in a new ‘state of the art’ press.

The company, which supplies components for seats, sub-frames, cross car beams, bumpers and bodies, has installed a new GTX300 Chin Fong progression press supplied by Worcester Presses (www.worcesterpresses.co.uk) and can now produce much larger parts for Tier One customers and major car manufacturers.

Nearly £350,000 has been spent on the machine and a Tomac TLN4 coil line, with more than £100,000 of funding secured from the Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Grants 4 Growth scheme and the European Regional Development Fund.

Three new jobs have been created as a result of the investment. and another eight people will be recruited over the course of the next 12 months, once production starts on the projects already secured.

Operations director Daniel Burton said: “The components we manufacture at our facility in Cannock end up in millions of cars all over the world. Our customers include Aston Martin, BMW, Jaguar Land Rover, Nissan and Volvo.

“We recognised the opportunity to expand our product offering by acquiring a press with a much bigger bed size, and we had been impressed by the reliability and performance of the OCP 260-tonne Chin Fong we purchased a few years ago.

“Worcester Presses came in, looked at our requirements and then developed a turn-key solution that involved the GTX 300, the latest HMI touch-screen control and a new Tomac TLN4 coil line that will increase our progression and coil-feeding capabilities.

“This machine has doubled our bed size and has already led to several new orders that we wouldn’t have been able to take on previously. There is still lots of capacity on it too, so we are looking for even more new work.”

RSD Pressings, which has annual sales of £5 million and employs 50 people, has worked with Dudley-based Worcester Presses for more than five years.

The relationship has seen it purchase eight machines over that time, and this relationship was key in the swift installation and commissioning of the GTX 300 and the subsequent training of three operators.

Established in 1949, Worcester Presses has seen a 30% increase in sales over the last 12 months from customers involved in the automotive, aerospace, construction and medical sectors.

The Dudley-based firm, which will be on stand H20-354 at MACH 2018, supplies mechanical and hydraulic presses from Chin Fong and Yeh Chiun, as well a growing range of Tomac coil-handling equipment.