All Maintenance articles – Page 20
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ArticleThe new EMC: Jaguar's genie?
The OEM's Engine Manufacturing Centre at Wolverhampton could grant its wish to make 1m cars per yearJaguar is now making its own engines for the first time since the mid-1990s, when the AJ6, AJ16 and V12 went into retirement. A new £500m facility, in what was once the heartland of ...
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ArticleThe pulling power of GAZ and Komatsu
AMS takes a look inside the OEMs' heavy-vehicle production sites at Yaroslavl, Russia, and Awazu, Japan Since early 2013, Russian heavy-vehicle manufacturer GAZ has been producing its latest generation of medium-duty diesel engines at what it describes as the "most up-to-date engine production" facility in the country. The engines are ...
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ArticleThe rise of robotics
Robots now play a key role in boosting quality, reliability and efficiency at automotive plants worldwideRobot sales to the automotive sector have increased from 19,300 in 2009 to 69,400 in 2013, with China, Germany, the US and Japan the main takers. Indeed, a recent report by independent business information provider, ...
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ArticleConveying automation benefits
Higher productivity starts with efficient materials handling; AMS investigates the latest innovationsWhat are the main factors under consideration when looking to transport parts along an automotive assembly line or move materials around a production plant? Speed, safety, reliability, flexibility, space and energy savings? Most probably, all of these and more ...
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ArticleCool India
Dürr’s experience in air-conditioning and cooling innovation can deliver a competitive edge for Indian companies, discovers automotive writer Dermot Healy.Dürr is a major global mechanical- and plant-engineering group and generates around 65% of its sales within the automotive industry. It also supplies the machinery, chemical, pharmaceutical and wood-processing industries with ...
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ArticleInterview: Colin Lawther, Nissan
The OEM's head of Manufacturing, Supply Chain Management and Purchasing in Europe denies rumours of outsourcing at its underutilised EV battery plant in Sunderland; Nissan's destiny remains in its own handsNick Gibbs (NG): Will you localise suppliers for the batteries?Colin Lawther (CL): No. The [Japanese] production facility for the electrodes ...
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ArticleInterview: Gurpratap Boparai, Fiat India
Fiat's CEO for the region talks of launching new models at Ranjangaon, including vehicles for FCA brandsAMS: Start of production at Ranjangaon was in 2007. What was the installed capacity then, and has this increased?Gurpratap Boparai (GB): It has remained the same at 130,000 units per annum, but if we ...
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ArticleMaking more with less
As the drive for energy efficiency increases, auto manufacturers are scrutinising every shopfloor processThe automotive manufacturing industry is a massive user of energy. The US industry alone consumes 800 trillion Btus per year, according to estimates by the US Department of Energy (DOE). In its ‘Energy Use Benchmarking in the ...
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ArticleNissan & Tennessee partner for manufacturing training
US – The collaboration between the vehicle-maker and the state will involve the establishment of a 150,000 sq.ft education and training facility next to Nissan’s vehicle assembly plant in Smyrna. Groundbreaking took place today.The training centre, which is scheduled to be completed by late 2016, will operate as an extension ...
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ArticleJLR Halewood: Full speed ahead
Invigorated by a £200m investment, the facility has become one of the UK's most productive car plantsOf all the turnaround stories emerging from the recent success of the British car industry, that of Jaguar Land Rover’s plant at Halewood, near Liverpool, is one of most compelling. Started in 1962 by ...
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ArticleIncreasing flexibility & performance
Comau discusses how vehicle manufacturers can improve efficiency through innovative engineering solutionsWhen balancing the needs of a dynamic global marketplace, greater flexibility and higher performance in production operations are essential to automotive manufacturers. The challenge to achieve this is frequently linked to their production facilities, many of which were built ...
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ArticleTechnology for treading carefully
The latest automated solutions can solve barcode reading and inspection challenges in tyre manufacturing Tracking and traceability are primary requirements for all tyre manufacturers. For quality control and compliance purposes, tyres are tracked at every step of the production process. However, black rubber is hardly a material that lends itself ...
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ArticleAn innovative EMS approach
Flexibility and cost savings are just two advantages of the latest Siemens monorail technology, writes Nora Schuler, vertical market manager, automotive at SiemensThe manufacturing landscape in South America is presently in a state of flux. The shift that is now taking place is also affecting the automotive industry, giving rise ...
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ArticlePainting perfection
OEMs in Brazil must deliver the highest level of innovation and sustainability, as evidenced by Geico Taikisha’s paintshop tie-in with Fiat in Pernambuco, write Luciano Dinatale, executive vice-president sales and business development, and Gabriele Gironi, executive vice-president operations and engineeringFiat has enjoyed a long and rewarding association with Brazil since ...
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ArticleAutomating the future
Edouard Mekhalian, managing director of Kuka Roboter do Brasil, looks at how robotics has the potential to put Brazil on the fast track to an automation and skills revolutionThe World Bank ranks Brazil as the world’s seventh-largest economy by gross domestic product. It is also the world’s fifth-largest automotive market, ...
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ArticleManufacturing optimisation
Todd Montpas, automotive and tyre market development manager at Rockwell Automation, discusses how automotive plants can unlock greater productivity and new efficienciesGlobal auto sales are expected to exceed 85m vehicles in 2014, according to IHS Automotive. If so, this will be the fifth straight year of record sales – a ...
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ArticleBetim: Brazil's behemoth
The largest Fiat Chrysler plant in the world has already upgraded its press shop and assembly hall but is expanding still further with the construction of a new paintshop that will become operational in 2016Almost a city in itself, Fiat Betim covers 829,700 sq.m on 2.48m sq.m of land in ...
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ArticleGM Brazil's firm foundation
Established in 1930, São Caetano do Sul is the OEM’s oldest plant in South America and has required substantial modernisation, most recently receiving upgrades to its bodyshop and press shopIn August this year, General Motors (GM) announced a $2.9 billion investment in Brazil for the development of new products, technologies ...
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ArticleParts transfer for press hardening applications
Strothmann says its transfer solution for hot forming applications features three linear axes with dynamic drives. The company says the TransferFEEDER SRT 3/040 performs programmed motion sequences and can achieve parts transfer times of under two seconds, while the press does not need to be opened as wide as in ...
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ArticleEuroBLECH: Proving its metal
Between October 21-25, the 23rd International Sheet Metal Working Technology Exhibition in Hanover will exhibit numerous solutions that are useful to the automotive industry For EuroBLECH 2014, organisers will bring together over 1,400 exhibitors from more than 40 countries, in an enlarged exhibition area in Hanover. Over half the ...