North Works are Pattern for Land Rover assembly
AN INVESTMENT programme of £200 million is in hand at Land Rover’s base at Solihull. Already the new North Works, opened in the middle of last year is producing Land Rover engines and assembling Range Rovers. North Works is the prototype for a new Land Rover assembly line yet to come. The massive £85-million high technol-ogy plant significantly increased output of the five-bearing crankshaft Land Rover engine and refined versions of both two and four door Range Rovers. The new factory has allowed Land Rover Ltd to reduce customer delivery times for its vehicles, while at the same time dramatically improving its own operating efficiency. Comprehensive quality audits, using computers, have become an almost obsessive feature of manufacture. The new plant is evidence of the company’s determination to stay on top of the world 4 x 4 market. The power and transmissions factory covers 40 411 sq m and cost approximately £70-million. Throughout this modern, highly-automated plant quality checks are applied at every con-ceivable stage of production and computer controls enable the engineers to keep an overall view of the entire operation. The power and transmissions plant manufactures and assembles the new Land Rover four cylinder, five-bearing crankshaft engine of 2.1/4 litres. Both petrol and diesel versions of the ‘five bearing’ engine were introduced progressively to replace the three main bearing crankshaft unit, which was desig-ned in the later 1950s. A few of these are still manufactured to suit one military customer. Detailed modifications to the new engine have improved upon the already good quality of the original, rugged design, but the main advantage of the five bearing unit is its much quieter and smoother performance. The new engine enabled Land Rover Ltd to conform to European regulations on noise and vibration Five main areas The power and transmissions area of North Works is divided into five main areas: Machine shop; computer controlled automated stores; engine assembly; engine test preparation and computer controlled engine testing. The machine shop manufactures most main engine components such as cylinder blocks and heads, flywheels, crankshafts and con rods. The operations of up to 100 machine tools on the fully-integrated transfer lines are monitored by mini computers’. Products are gauged at regular intervalsto check quality, and parts are washed frequently during machining to ensure high standards of manufacture. At every stage of production, parts are not allowed to pass through the system unless ‘bought off by quality inspectors. The computer controlled automated store is one of the most impressive features of this plant. Covering 5945 sq m, the store is housed in a ‘hole’ 3.9m deep, excavated to prevent raising the roof of the building and so affecting the local, residential environment. The stores are fully automated and controlled by computer. Pallets are ‘pigeon-holed’, selected and moved in and out by robot stackers and conveyors, which can retrieve bins at random at a rate of 72 pallets an hour. Nearby, a small parts store, for items such as nuts and bolts, can accommodate up to 3000 bins and operates on similar lines. All components are quality inspec-ted on receipt and automatically sorted for stock rotation. Components from the automated stores are conveyed to the main engine assembly line, which is 143.25m long. At the initial stages, the line carries for assembly both petrol and diesel units. All air tools are torque controlled and engines are air pressure tested to check gasket leakage. Once again, regular qual-ity inspections throughout assembly are rigorously enforced. When commonality between the two versions of engine ceases, each unit is lifted off the line by an overhead trolley. Both the engine and its trolley are iden-tified by computer and so, from this moment on, each unit is ‘tracked’ through every stage of its manufacture. Petrol and diesel units progress to separate areas for fitting of carburettors or injectors and other appropriate components. The 1219m overhead power trolley system employed in North Works is the most complex mechanical handling device of its type in Europe. Both petrol and diesel engines are eventually directed into four buffer store lines to await testing. Every Land Rover engine is thoroughly proved in one of 24 automated test cells and each unit requires a quality passport—an approved computer print-out—before being passed off for sale to the customer.
Thirty-minute test It takes just two or three minutes to connect the engine ‘match plate’ applied in the rigging area, to the computer linked test equipment. But every engine is tested for up to 30 minutes and all major functions are checked and observed by engineers on a visual display unit. Test cell operators may make minor adjustments but if any major problems occur, engines, are sent for rectification. The test time cycle is reduced to about a half for petrol engines and one-third for diesels over the labour intensive system used previously. The Range Rover assembly activities will serve as a basis for the still-to-be developed Land Rover assembly line. Basically the engines, transmissions, steering units and other mechanical com-ponents are provided by ‘satellite’ plants and stored in a receiving bay close to the assembly area. Body-in-white panels are stacked in another storage depot. First of all, body pressings are de-greased and then phosphate electro-coated using the latest advances in pre-treatment of mixed steel and alloy parts to achieve high quality adhesion and finish and complete penetration of box sections. A conveyor carries parts such as panels, internal wiring and glass from the com-ponents store and paint shop to the body framing line. Here the main sections of the body are assembled at over 40 stations on special jigs, or ‘cages’, to ensure a perfect and consistent fit. Simultaneously, engines are ‘dressed’ on a separate, parallel track and linked to chassis frames and transmissions. Because each vehicle is built to order, the body and chassis are identified by computer and are committed to each other early on in assembly. Conveyors lift body assemblies from the framing line to the end of the engine dressing track, thus forming a continuous loop to the start of final assembly. Complete body shells are lowered on to chassis, engine and transmission units to progress down the assembly and trim line. Brake bleeding Special features here include automat-ically controlled brake bleeding equip-ment, long before each vehicle is tested on its wheels. A micro-chip controlled tool first sucks out all the air to form a vacuum and then injects exactly the right amount of brake fluid at a very high pressure. Computerised devices also check and ensure consistent and correct amounts of fluid used in the engine, gearbox and power steering—even anti-freeze is measured out in the right quantities. The soft trim shop is positioned along-side the final assembly track and provides seats and other furnishings on the way. Finally, doors and road wheels are fitted. In North Works, Range Rovers are tested on rolling roads, rectified and finally inspected under one roof. Every Range Rover is given a rolling road test, which lasts up to 10 minutes for each vehicle. When the new Land Rover works are completed the system of assembly and listing will be based upon the Range Rover experience. OTHER SERIES III ARTICLES: Technical SpecificationsAll of the following articleswere published between 1980 and 1983, a period that saw the introduction of the County models, the Hi-Cap Pick Up and the Stage 1 V8
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