Production and quality
FOR RELEASE: May 2, 2001Production and quality
First-Class Finish for Opel's New Van and Transporter Range
- 300 million Euros invested in quality and efficiency
- GM subsidiary IBC Vehicles builds the Vivaro for Opel, Renault and Nissan
- Comprehensively modernized production plant in Luton, England
An ambitious target: the Vivaro is not only designed to match passenger-car standards in its design and road behavior, but also in its production quality and paint finish. The task of producing to these high quality standards at competitive prices on behalf of the commercial-vehicle partnership between Renault and Opel has been entrusted to the General Motors subsidiary IBC Vehicles in Great Britain. Until the end of 2002 the IBC plant in Luton, north of London, where the Opel Frontera is also built, will be the only production source for the new light commercial vehicle with the internal development code X83, which will soon take to world's roads as the Opel Vivaro, the Renault Trafic or later as a Nissan model.
IBC (which is 100 percent owned by General Motors) has invested approximately 300 million Euros in making its Luton plant fit for production of the new light commercial vehicle. The body-in-white production area and the paint shop, for instance, were totally renewed - a development from which the Frontera has also benefited. The investments have had the effect of trebling the plant's output: over 100,000 vehicles can now be built annually. In 2002, the first full production year, it is planned to make about 86,000 Vivaros and its sister-models. When the IBC plant in Luton is running at full capacity with three shifts a day, it will employ about 2700 people, 2000 of them directly involved in turning out the new light commercial vehicle.
Whereas Renault supplies the engines and gearboxes, about 65 percent of the other parts are of British origin - either made by IBC itself or sourced from specialist suppliers. When the plant's capacity is fully utilized, for instance, it will consume about 260 tons of steel a day, eleven tons of paint and corrosion protection coatings and 200 truckloads of components.
Modernization and extension of the Luton plant has already started in the press shop, which supplies panels for the Opel Vectra and Frontera models. Two of the five tandem press lines, both of them fully automated, are reserved for the new van.
The press equipment consists of no fewer than 101 fixtures for the manufacture of 63 pressed-steel body elements. The modernized plant can shape stampings for the right and left sides of the body simultaneously. In view of the quantities involved and the weight of 40 kilograms per vehicle, this makes the process far more efficient by reducing the volume of parts that has to be temporarily stored.
Ingenious: High-Tech Coordinate Measuring Systems
One of the main motives for the extensive modernization of this production plant was to ensure - and monitor - consistently high quality. Critical dimensions have been determined for each sheet-metal part by applying complex statistical methods. These data are recorded continuously in the press lines and body construction shop with the aid of ultra-precise coordinate measuring apparatus and transmitted to the machine maintenance staff, who can take remedial action if any deviations are detected. The press shop test equipment, for example, can check up to 400 individual points on a sheet steel element. At the next stage in the production process, the body-in-white shop, at least two bodies are put through a complete dimensional check every day, with tolerances down to a few thousandths of a millimeter.
As a further measure aimed at maintaining these high standards of precision, considerable sums have been invested in automating the body-in-white construction stages. This starts with a highly automated locating rig, which has a major part to play in ensuring the dimensional accuracy of the finished body. After this, 56 new robots weld the individual elements of the Vivaro's body together accurately and reliably. Many of these robots are capable of performing automatic tool changes, for instance from gripper arm to welding tongs. Incidentally, these robots are among the first to be operated by General Motors with an internal cable harness, which greatly improves their range of movement. IBC has had more than ten years' experience in the testing of spot welds by the ultrasonic method. This is particularly relevant to the new Vivaro, which has more than 5000 spot welds at various points on its body, compared with about 3500 on the average passenger car.
Environmental Progress: New Paint Shop with Reduced Emissions
A further investment priority was the new paint shop, built at a cost of almost 50 million Euros. Here too a high level of automation helps to ensure consistently good quality. The modernized primer and top coating spray booths are capable of matching passenger-car standards of finish and have also been designed to reduce the impact on the environment: paint losses have been reduced by 15 percent and the new drying ovens consume 28 percent less energy than the previous equipment and emit far fewer hydrocarbon pollutants. The methods employed to achieve include the recirculation of warm air by turbo-fans before it is returned to the process.
Precautions against rust are a top priority. The bare bodyshell consists to a large extent of sheet steel galvanized on both sides. Four robots seal all the body seams automatically to prevent moisture from penetrating. A further 12 robot stations apply the Vivaro's underseal. This is the technology behind the 12-year anti-perforation warranty Opel offers for its new van range.
A further new development is the use of three robots with exceptionally flexible, jointed arms to paint the interior. These robots move along the assembly line with the vehicle, to ensure that there is sufficient time for all panels to be thoroughly coated. This is the first time that mobile robots have been used at a GM production plant; they take over one of the less pleasant tasks that human beings were formerly obliged to perform and perform it with even greater efficiency.
Wide Choice of Body Colors Ex-Factory
The new conveyor system in the paint shop has computer-controlled buffer zones that permit bodies to be grouped together for spraying in the same color. This avoids having to clean the spray jets after each body has passed through the spray booth, so that efficiency is increased and the burden on the environment is minimized. A further notable feature is the big choice of available body colors. As well as the 12 standard colors it is possible to process small batches of vehicles in alternative or non-standard colors. An additional spray booth that can handle two bodies an hour has been installed especially for this purpose.
Painting is followed by the final rust proofing. Each Vivaro has two and a half kilograms of a special wax applied to it; the wax penetrates deeply into all the weld seams and body cavities. In the drying ovens it changes its chemical composition, allowing it to retain its protective function throughout the vehicle's operating life.
The same determination to maintain a consistently high quality standard has led to new developments in the final assembly area. A robot, for instance, now installs the windows. 130 additional 'intelligent' tools are capable of identifying the safety-relevant threaded connections, for instance in the steering or axle assembly areas, and checking that the correct tightening torque has been applied. If not, the assembly line is automatically halted until the problem has been traced and eliminated.
Every completed Vivaro undergoes a further thorough inspection on new dynamic vehicle test rigs. The functions of the powertrain, brakes and electrical system are all checked, followed by a final acceptance procedure on a specially equipped inspection line. In conclusion, there is a water penetration test. All these checks form part of the "Standard Inspection Procedure" (SIP) that General Motors applies worldwide in order to ensure high quality. The system includes what are known as "quality gates": after each stage in the production process the vehicles are thoroughly inspected and only allowed to pass through the "gate" to the next production area if they are free from defects.
A major element of the focus on quality has been intensive training of IBC staff in Luton. Well before production of the Vivaro started, each of the current workforce of 1600 received training according to the motto "Let's get it right from the start!", the aim being to avoid cost-intensive rectification work at the end of the production line. On average, each employee received 50 hours of training.