EXTRUDING GREATER VALUE The HAI Group is a market leader in the manufacture of advanced and complex aluminium components for niche markets. Philip Yorke talked to Rob van Gils, the general manager of the HAI Group, about its ambitious plans for growth and its latest casting, extrusion and welding technology.
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he HAI Group (Hammerer Aluminium Industries) was created as the result of the Hammerer family taking over the casting and extrusion product divisions of AMAG in 2007, while in turn the Hammerer family yielded its interest in AMAG to Constantia Packaging AG. This strategic decision to produce extrusions in an autonomous company heralded the founding of the HAI Group and formed the springboard for its success. Over the past five years the company has seen strong growth as a result of its strategy 196 Industry Europe
of combining its long-standing experience with young dynamics. The company has ample capacity for cooperation on large projects, which have been merged together with lean structures and rapid decisionmaking procedures. The HAI Group headquarters are at Ranshofen, Austria, where aluminium has been manufactured since 1939. The company operates the most advanced casting furnaces and homogenisation plants in Europe and is continuing to invest heavily in
new technology. Furthermore, the company operates four extrusion presses enabling them to produce profiles from 80g/m up to more than 20kg/m. A brand new machine park for customised additional fabrication is completing the range of products
‘Alu-plus principle’ driving sales It is not possible to make the kind of progress that the HAI Group has made in the last few years without offering something special. The company attributes its ongoing success to
