New compact car
heads for UK plant from 2010
Nissan announces that new compact will replace the Micra in
the Sunderland line-up while a new A-Class platform will go
into five low-cost plants
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Schuler presses head for VW's
Chinese offshoot
Huge body panel presses from Schuler are part of FAW-VW's plan
to double output to a million cars in 2012
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BMW order is biggest ever
for press manufacturer
Schuler will sell more than €100 million of automated press
shop machinery to Leipzig plant alone, and then there are deals
for Regensburg and Munich
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Dürr sells
automated assembly line to Chinese factory
It's the second assembly line it's sold to Dongfeng Peugeot
Citroën's Chinese plants
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Cutting costs
safely
Everyone wants to reduce manufacturing costs, but how do you
do it when the item in question is a safety component? Automotive
Engineer investigates
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Holding
it together
Developments in tooling and in joining make vehicle
manufacturing simpler. Or do they?
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Under pressure
Springback simulation may make aluminium body panels easier
to manufacture. But can it be that simple? Of course not
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Laser welding
lightens the load at Mercedes
Mercedes-Benz is using lasers to cut the weight from its cars.
Laser welding uses less material and saves cost too
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EDAG system aims
to speed assembly of reflecting panels
The engineering consultancy is using laser guides to handle
difficult materials such as glass panels and painted surfaces
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OEMs talk Turkey
Turkey is emerging as a base for manufacturing and R&D.
We gauge its potential and look at the challenges
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Russian revolution
Russia's auto industry is experiencing dramatic change with
global OEMs and tier ones starting to operate locally
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BASF takes a
shine to Mercedes
BASF has developed a waterborne paint process that heightens
the metallic effect of colours
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Delphi space
welding ideas could have earthly uses
Systems used on space vehicles could be adapted for use in automotive
body-in-white facilities
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New Mini gets front end module from
HBPO
Assembly of the new model is made simpler with HBPO's front
end module, supplied in sequence to the Cowley plant from its
new facility in Banbury
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Ford tests high-solids paint
Ford has introduced a high-solids-based system paint system
applied in just three wet layers at its Avon Lake assembly plant
in Ohio, US
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Water jet cutting aids glass
profiling
Saint-Gobain Sekurit's Polish manufacturing plant has adopted
water jet cutting for complex profiles in delicate materials
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Faster plant growth
Getting lines up and running quickly can be hard at plants i
new territories. Modular production systems could help
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Lifecycle emissions
Production emits more CO2 than most carmakers admit, but its
true share of a vehicle’s carbon footprint is being tackled
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Dry film protection for steel
Castrol, working with steel suppliers and OEMs, is developing
dry film coatings for steel coils
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Studs ready for body piercing
Fastenings group Profil launches plain studs for automatic
insertion in automotive applications
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Crash
cans hydroformed in European first
Corus has worked with a Spanish group to make crash
cans from a single hydroformed tubular blank
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MSC puts all its simulation
stuff together
The developer of Nastran, Dytran and LS-Dyna has put all its
simulation packages together in a multi-disciplinary package
called MD Nastran
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Improving the process
Dana Traction Technologies Europe has selected the Zeiss CenterMax
to supply three CMMs (co-ordinate measuring machines) to improve
the manufacturing process of front and rear 4 x 4 axle housings.
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Jaguar saves time and money
with RP
Jaguar Cars is making increasing use of the latest rapid prototyping
(RP) technologies at its Whitley Engineering Centre in the
UK to speed the development of new vehicles by making plastic
parts directly from CAD models, therefore eliminating the
expense of producing mould tools.
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Mazda adopts more eco-friendly
painting process
In collaboration with the Nippon Paint Company, Mazda has
developed a new electro-deposition basecoat – as e-coating
–which substantially reduces both volatile organic compounds
(VOC) and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
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