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Car Manufacturing Process Overview [video]

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Re: Car Manufacturing Process Overview [video]

#21

Post by masto »

rootcage wrote: post #6

I'm always surprised by the amount of human labor involved, I tend to think of manufacturing as mostly robots but there are numerous manual steps.

The one that really surprised me for some reason was PCB manufacturing. The Strange Parts YouTube channel has a few tours of Chinese factories, and I guess I pictured that it's just some sort of giant clean room with a long conveyor belt that goes through all the processes on its own. So I was not expecting it to start with grabbing a blank PCB from a pile stored outside and taking a band saw to it. Such a mix of high-tech automation and human hands picking things up, racking them on the table, and sticking them into the next machine.

Re: Car Manufacturing Process Overview [video]

#22

Post by tibbydudeza »

vardump wrote: post #19
tibbydudeza wrote: post #3

A single pressed body does not seem a good idea for body repairs. Insurance rates are already high enough = car payment.

It could be horrible or it could be great for repairability. All depends on how that single pressed body is designed.

I have seen some Indian panelbeaters do miracles on a wrecked car - cutting away a not only a rear quarter panel but half of a floorplan (FWD) but welding a replacement in sutu and then using a chassis jig to pull to straight again.

Don't think it will work on your CyberTruck - Tesla repairs are astronomical in normal fender benders.

Re: Car Manufacturing Process Overview [video]

#23

Post by sbierwagen »

rootcage wrote: post #6

I'm always surprised by the amount of human labor involved, I tend to think of manufacturing as mostly robots but there are numerous manual steps.

Elon was surprised too. The model 3 was supposed to have a fully automated line. He couldn't make it happen. Industrial robots are bad at wiggling stuff into place, and hopeless at handling error cases. https://qz.com/1261214/how-exactly-tesla-shot-itself-in-the-...

Re: Car Manufacturing Process Overview [video]

#24

Post by loudmax »

Interesting that they attach doors, then remove them, then put them back on again. It raises the question, why did they bother to attach them the first time around?

My guess is that the answer is the paint process. There's some range of allowable difference in paint hue going from one car to the next, even if they're marketed as having the same color. That range is much smaller for a given single vehicle. If the doors are even a slightly different hue, you're likely to notice.

Re: Car Manufacturing Process Overview [video]

#25

Post by w-m »

Animats wrote: post #12

If you've never seen it, watch "Master Hands".[1] This is a very good movie of auto manufacturing in the 1930s. Those workers went on strike a few years after that, in 1939, and won. That ended the "Chrysler Speed Up Initiative". [1] https://archive.org/details/masterhandscomplete4kh264

I went in with an expectation of it being completely different. And there is much more manual labor in 1939. It's dirtier, and grittier, but mostly for the steps we don't see in the Toyota video, as for example the motor comes in one block, and we don't see how it's built.

But on a high level, both videos look like the same process. You can find many steps, like the stamping, the welding, the final assembly, that look nearly unchanged in 85 years, save for some automation with robots, and some quality-of-life improvements in the assembly, where people don't have to lug around heavy parts.

Re: Car Manufacturing Process Overview [video]

#26

Post by edpichler »

loudmax wrote: post #24

Interesting that they attach doors, then remove them, then put them back on again. It raises the question, why did they bother to attach them the first time around? My guess is that the answer is the paint process. There's some range of allowable difference in paint hue going from one car to the next, even if they're marketed as having the same color. That range is much smaller for a given single vehicle. If the door…

They paint it all together to have exactly the same color (as you well said) and avoid two painting jobs in different parts of the process. There are fewer moving parts this way, following the lean manufacturing principles. Then it is temporarily removed to create more space for the workers (as the video shows).

Re: Car Manufacturing Process Overview [video]

#27

Post by hef19898 »

edpichler wrote: post #26
loudmax wrote: post #24

Interesting that they attach doors, then remove them, then put them back on again. It raises the question, why did they bother to attach them the first time around? My guess is that the answer is the paint process. There's some range of allowable difference in paint hue going from one car to the next, even if they're marketed as having the same color. That range is much smaller for a given single vehicle. If the door…

They paint it all together to have exactly the same color (as you well said) and avoid two painting jobs in different parts of the process. There are fewer moving parts this way, following the lean manufacturing principles. Then it is temporarily removed to create more space for the workers (as the video shows).

And the doors move in a parallel line for assembly of the door. Making it easy to maintain a one peace flow and not worry about the various options for each car on the line. And, as already pointed out, a homogenous paint job.

Re: Car Manufacturing Process Overview [video]

#29

Post by hef19898 »

sbierwagen wrote: post #23
rootcage wrote: post #6

I'm always surprised by the amount of human labor involved, I tend to think of manufacturing as mostly robots but there are numerous manual steps.

Elon was surprised too. The model 3 was supposed to have a fully automated line. He couldn't make it happen. Industrial robots are bad at wiggling stuff into place, and hopeless at handling error cases. https://qz.com/1261214/how-exactly-tesla-shot-itself-in-the-...

And quite frankly, saying Elon being the only surprised by this is only a mild exageration.

Re: Car Manufacturing Process Overview [video]

#30

Post by hef19898 »

tibbydudeza wrote: post #22
vardump wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It could be horrible or it could be great for repairability. All depends on how that single pressed body is designed.

I have seen some Indian panelbeaters do miracles on a wrecked car - cutting away a not only a rear quarter panel but half of a floorplan (FWD) but welding a replacement in sutu and then using a chassis jig to pull to straight again. Don't think it will work on your CyberTruck - Tesla repairs are astronomical in normal fender benders.

What you describe might work in the developing world. In the induszrialized west, such a repair makes a car not road worthy.
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