BENZ SINDELFINGEN VISIT 17-2-16

The main joining parts of the car are done through spot welding

Spot welding is done by kuka automated robot

The pressure of 750 Pascal is given to the two electrodes and made the

welding

The magazine is loaded at the depot and the robot takes from the line and

does the work in the sequence

There are approx. 5000 weld spots in the E-class

The conveyer line in the plant is about 220km

Heat resistant transponder is installed in each unit to trace the condition of

the body and report , store the details

It also helps to identify the BOM AND IDENTITY OF UNIT IN DETAIL

Only the car body is of 450 – 500 kg ( stahl + al)

Soldering is used to fill in the gaps that cannot be welded ( mostly at edges

or corners)

Red – glue is created to help the stiffness of the web element in the beams

The steel usage is layered with soft steel for exterior finish, ultra high steel

and high steel to absorb the sudden impact loads like accidents.

The thickness of ultra-high is 0.6-1.2 mm more than soft steel(al + steel)

Clinching process(durchsetzfugen) is a metal working or mechanical

fastening process to join steel and aluminium at certain points

Bolzenschweissen – Stud welding, it is used to fasten bolt and screw with

the larger parts (housing, radiator, etc.)

Crash test will be checked according to type and orientation of damage

The crash test type should be also identified and experiment with simulated

environment to check with the results

Air bags placement also important, because impact can happen from any

side so it is better to install airbags from all the sides.

The airbag is filled with argon

The glue used to attach all the part bodies will be silaflex(Swiss)

Testing will be done check on dynamometer,Wheel,signals,lights

When there is problem in the machine or part , the assembly unit stops

automatically and the worker enter the working arena from door using

padlock(temporary stop)

5 Layers of painting is done pink phosphate, phosphate, primer basic

colour, coating in layers using BISF code

This 5 layer paint was introduced in 1993, before that it was water resistant

base paint

MB plant uses 53 ton paint a day

In the aaembly line there will be 3 cards to the car , red(mistake),

Blue(paint details), Grey(Worker mistake)

There is a yellow colour device called kanban which can display the

inventory data

Workers manually fix air ducts , batteries , electrical circuits , doors,

dampers , isolators, radiators, suspension , covers , seat belts , first aid kit

and rest of parts are mostly attached and fixed by robots

Paint totally adds extra 20 kgs to car (8kg- paint , 12kg- pvc to cover all

gaps)

There is also a paper attached to each car unit to display us the details about

Country to export, right to left drive, no of cylinders, car type, specific type

etc...

MB plant always uses JIT management system, all the different car parts

from different workshops or cities will arrive 4 hrs. before the assembly

going to happen

MB plant manufactures 5000 engines a day

Pick by beam is an advanced sensor type rack which can find parts, it has

cameras at each row of rack, it will not make the mistake to misplace the

part in different box, There are red and green lights to indicate us the

condition or like status

The doors will be there while painting is done and then they will be

removed before pre-assembly and will be attached only at the time just

before assembly, because painting need not to be done separately

MB Production system is the place where mostly the assembly will happen

For most commercial cars 90% automated and 10% manual, but for sports,

luxury or high performance manual assembly is mostly preferred

1.8million KW is used each day for MB plant

Natural gas is the primary source of power