Latest News & Features – Page 106
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ArticleMAN to invest €2.4 billion by 2020
Germany – The funds, equivalent to $2.8 billion, will go towards modernising the company’s sites and improving efficiency across all divisions, and will include a €1.1 billion upgrade at its main plant in Munich between 2015 and 2020. In Munich, MAN is opening a new paintshop, expanded bodyshop, a combined ...
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ArticleSteel town
ArcelorMittal’s Indiana Harbor steel mill has needed to change with the times. AMS paid a visitArcelorMittal employs over 4,200 people at its Indiana Harbor facility, which has been the site of steel making for over 100 years. According to Wendell Carter, long-serving steel man, vice-president and general manager: “Indiana Harbor ...
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Building for the future
Subaru has spent $1.3bn at its US plant to increase its capacity and is now preparing to produce a new SUVSubaru of Indiana Automotive (SIA) reports that it has invested $1.3 billion at its 832-acre site in Lafayette, Indiana, over the last four years. This has increased both powertrain and ...
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ArticleVW invests €560m at Pacheco for new SUV
Argentina – The OEM said the plant would undergo “modernisation measures” costing the equivalent of $660m to optimise the production process, enhancing quality and sustainability while enabling it to make the new SUV by 2020. The introduction of the model, based on Volkswagen’s Modular Transverse Matrix (MQB) platform, will create ...
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ArticleSouthern powerhouse
South Africa's automotive industry has emerged onto the world stage after increased investment from the likes of BMW, Mercedes and VW. Moreover, the country has now attracted the attentions of a Chinese OEM The automotive industry has played a central role in the economic and industrial strategies of successive South ...
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ArticleTransceiver light curtain
The new Allen-Bradley GuardShield 450L safety light curtain system features transceiver technology says Rockwell Automation. The company says that unlike safety light curtains that use pre-defined transmitter and receiver units, this system employs plug-in modules to establish each unit’s function as a transmitter or receiver. Once powered up, the transceiver ...
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ArticleSetting a fast pace
JLR is following up the stunning success of its Evoque SUV with more models and manufacturing operationsNot long ago, JLR was facing the possibility of a factory closure amidst declining sales and a recession. Fortunately, the Evoque model had already been approved for production, and when this vehicle launched it ...
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ArticleNew measurement software
The launch of PC-DMIS 2017 R2 is the second of two major releases scheduled in 2017, says Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence. This latest version features the Slideshow for INSPECT software, which the company says allows users to create customised layouts with inspection results populated during measurement.Other improvements include better native mesh ...
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ArticleInterview: William Brunat, PPG
AMS visits Ingersheim to speak to the company's technical director, EMEA, about the challenges facing coatings specialists in light of new body materials and the rise of electric and autonomous vehiclesNick Holt (NH): How much of a challenge will multi-material vehicles present in the future?William Brunat (WB): There are ...
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ArticleGear skiving machines
Liebherr says its LK 300 and 500 gear skiving machines are supplied on a “turnkey” basis with individual clamping fixtures for each workpiece. These machines are based on tried-and-tested components of corresponding large hobbing machines. In addition the company says that its newly developed LHGe@rTec control system contains the mathematical ...
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ArticleBMW opens Mexican training centre
Mexico – Located at the OEM’s San Lui Potosí plant which is due to open in 2019, the new training centre covers 6,000 sq.m and has 11 workshops for employees plus apprentices from three educational institutions. The centre was built at a cost of $9m.Hermann Bohrer, president and CEO of ...
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ArticleHonda breaks ground at motorbike plant
Bangladesh – The joint venture Bangladesh Honda Private Limited (BHL) is building a factory on 101,171 sq.m of land at Abdul Monem Economic Zone in Munshiganj District, Dhaka Division. The investment for land purchase and construction amounts to 2.3 billion taka ($30m). “We believe the Bangladesh motorcycle market is very ...
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ArticleA technical Triumph
The implementation of ‘intelligent’ workstations has streamlined the motorcycle-maker’s Hinckley operationInteractive workstations that tell assembly workers which tasks they should be performing, ensure they perform them correctly, and report back to a central control system are now a fact of life in the manufacturing sector. These capabilities tend to be ...
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ArticleChemical composition
The greater use of mixed materials in vehicle construction has required changes to the pretreatment processThe initial treatment that a bare metal car body receives is fundamental to achieving the key performance parameters of all subsequent coating and painting operations, most obviously corrosion protection and paint adhesion. For many decades, ...
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ArticleStill going strong
As November marks the 40th anniversary of the original press-hardened steel patent, AMS takes a look at how the technology has evolved and where it is heading next in an era of mixed-material vehicle productionThe overriding merit of press-hardened steel (PHS) has always been the unique combination of formability, ultra ...
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ArticleSitting pretty
Brose UK has now insourced the painting of seat structures, bringing efficiency and evironmental savings"This is a massive show of faith and confirms the Group’s intention of giving us the technology and capability we need to take on and successfully deliver higher volumes for our local customers,” said Juergen Zahl, ...
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ArticleAutomated stream finishing
The SF1-Automation with chain loader is one example of its new range stream finishing machines, says Otec. This unit offers a combination of smoothing, polishing, edge rounding and deburring functions and is capable of achieving roughness values as small as Ra 0.01µm, claims the company.The SF1-Automation chain loader has 64 ...
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ArticlePolymeric coated engine bearings
IROX 2 is a new range of polymeric coated crankshaft bearings from Federal-Mogul Powertrain. The company says it has developed this technology to reduce friction and improve the wear resistance and fatigue limit of the bearings used in downsized engines.The bearings have an overlay that is a PAI (Polyamide-imide) polymer ...
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ArticleRegulated two-stage turbocharger
The regulated two-stage (R2S) turbocharger features a water-cooled compressor housing and consists of two series-connected turbochargers of different sizes to deliver high boost pressures and smooth power over the entire engine speed range, says BorgWarner.One turbocharger features the company’s variable turbine geometry (VTG) technology for the high-pressure stage combined with ...
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ArticleHigh-speed machine vision camera
The fanless 3-megapixel camera EoSens 3FIBER can transmit data up to a distance of 300 meters through an integrated fiber interface and runs up to 566 frames per second, claims Mikrotron. Based on a full resolution of 1,696 x 1,710 pixels the frame can be reduced continuously and allows frame ...