Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd has introduced a tailored welded blank facility at SSC Kyushu Co Ltd, a coil centre based in the Kyushu region that Sumitomo Metals operates in cooperation with Kanpoh Steel Co. Ltd, Sumitomo Corp. and Sumikin Bussan Corp. The facility entered operation on 1 October 2009. Tailored welded blanks are a technology used to manufacture automobile parts by welding steel sheets with varied thickness and strength and then by forming into a part by only one blanking.
