Well today with a scheme through work i went on a 4km 4 hour tour of the Nissan factory in my home town of Sunderland. I was so impressed with the place that im going to book a tour with my mates as it only costs a fiver.
no pictures unfortunatly but i'll explain what i can.
The tour started at 9am and we were given high vis tops and head sets which were linked to the bloke leading the tour. we started right at the beginning looking at the first stamped parts (car was quasqi or whatever its called). the first parts to be jigged together are the front chassis leg box sections. at this point all the sections are spot welded (approx 3000) and the intrigate movements the robots make is truly awe inspiring. machines everywhere doing their work in harmony with each other. Whichever genius/s design the production lines and machinery....well im gobsmacked! anyway shells are assembled with doors and evrything and given an electronic tag...every car has a destination from the off and are all to order. As the car goes along the doors are added checked for panel gaps which i dont know why as youll see in a sec. Then the cars are dipped 6 times! not apint but cleaning/primer etc etc.. then the car is painted. the engine bay is done by a bloke who watches a screen telling him which colour to do it the rest of the car is done by machine and cured in an oven...along with underseal...sound deadening sealer all being done previous. eventually after many a process the assembly begins..the doors are removed again and built every car to its own spec...no two top spec cars go through together this would ruin the production times as top spec cars need more time and one after another would ruin this....we are talking 66 per hour! so they mix them up base spec/top spec and so on. all along the way auto piloted trolley things with daft tunes like star wars and grandfathers clock are trundling along empty gangways following a magnetic strip as they transport rubbish and parts...like a little train no higher than a table. these are all designed and built within the factory. Karmann is also housed within nissan for the cabby micra thing which they make a loss on. karmann is behind closed doors. the cars roll in and roll out..no nissan employee is allowed access?!
I could go on but it was truely amazing! how it all comes together to make a car is beyond me! if only we could see images or go back to the time the g40 was built!! apologies for spelling and grammar...so much to say and my food is burning in the oven!
