TI Automotive Plans Cutting-Edge Fuel Tank Plant in Georgia

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas) TI Group Automotive North America LLC (Warren, Michigan), a subsidiary of British-based TI Group PLC, is poised to announce plans for its new fuel systems plant in Hartwell, Georgia, near the Georgia/South Carolina border, pending final approval by TI Group’s board of directors.

Construction on the $9 million, 145,000 square foot plant (Plant 1063635) is tentatively scheduled to begin in the next two months. Site work is expected to begin within a month (PEC 17001904). O’Neal Construction LLC (Atlanta, Georgia) has been chosen as Design/Build and General Contractor and Construction Manager for the project.

TI plans to implement production of its proprietary fuel tank technology, which it dubs a “ship-in-a-bottle” system (SIAB), in which many of the fuel system parts which were formerly located outside the fuel tank are now located inside the blow-molded fuel tank, a process which has set the standard for meeting newer, stricter government emissions control standards, first and foremost in California, which has the strictest emissions controls in the nation. The technology will overcome some of the problems encountered before its advent with plastics and will cut the fuel tank manufacturing industry loose from its exclusive dependence on metals. The blow-molding process, in contrast to simple injection molding, includes clamping the ends of a softened polymer tube (either extruded or reheated), inflating the polymer against the walls of a mold with a blow pin, and then cooling the product by conduction or evaporation. There are three general types of blow molding: extrusion blow molding, injection blow molding, and stretch blow molding. Extrusion blow molding is usually used to make items such as food, laundry, or waste containers. Injection blow molding is used to achieve very accurate wall thickness, high-quality neck finish, and to process polymers that cannot be extruded, such as pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and single serving liquor bottles. Stretch blow molding is used for difficult-to-blow crystalline and crystallizable polymers, such as polypropylene and polyethylene terephthalate.

TI Automotive already uses this SIAB technology for fuel tank manufacturing at its plant in Ossian, Indiana (Plant 1049429), as well as in its European plants, where emissions standards have traditionally (until recently) been higher than in the U.S. The company plans to invest a total of $16 million this year in new production lines to make the ship-in-a-bottle fuel systems in Europe and the U.S.

In January, the company announced that beginning with 2006-model-year production, the fourth-quarter contract awards include complete fuel systems and subsystems for a range of products, including luxury sedans and sport-utility vehicles. The contracts cover both diesel- and gasoline-powered vehicles that meet stringent LEVII and PZEV requirements. Combined, the contracts involve more than 800,000 units annually. The new Georgia plant will give TI Automotive a proximate location to a number of southern states OEMs, both domestic and transplant. In early April the company announced that it had been awarded a contract to supply the complete fuel system for a new sport-utility vehicle to be built in the U.S. by a German automaker – ergo, Mercedes-Benz or BMW, both of which have assembly plants in the South – Mercedes-Benz in Vance, Alabama, and BMW in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

The company has also recently announced that it is building a new 60,000 square foot fuel systems plant in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico, in the Villa Florida Industrial Park, where it will employ 400 workers. TI Automotive currently has 10 plants in Mexico, including two facilities that support its Walbro Engine Management business. Six other Reynosa facilities fabricate heating, ventilation, and air conditioning lines for various automotive OEMs.

TI Automotive is the only global supplier of fully integrated fuel storage and delivery systems for cars and trucks, and the leading supplier of fluid carrying systems for braking and powertrain applications to automotive OEMs globally.

TI Automotive LLC was created in 1999 from a de-merger from the UK-based Smiths Group. TI Automotive, which employs over 20,000 employees in more than 100 facilities worldwide, is divided into three major divisions. The Fuel Systems group is responsible for approximately 35 percent of company sales; the Fluid Carrying Systems group, 50 percent; and the Industrial group, comprised of VARI-FORM, Walbro Engine Management, and Bundy Refrigeration, 15 percent. German-based Pierburg Fuel Pumps is the latest addition to the Fuel Systems group (2003).