Ford’s EV factory of the future could mean less pain for workers

The air carried any smell, but the usual cacophony of machines, robots and clogging metal fell silent, replaced by swirling loud fans, when the line seemed to have stopped briefly to hear the workers from Jim Farley himself. He was there to announce a $ 2 billion plant upgrade and create an electric car of $ 30,000 on a new platform with a radically different manufacturing process.

Escape and Corsair, manufactured on the same line, will stop production this year, as EV plants have stated since 2027 that 2,200 production jobs have provided for the next chapter of this plant, much less than 3,300 workers who are currently employing the plant. About 600 workers will be offered to buy jobs at other races for trucks and SUVs.

Those remaining will be retrained to build a new ev. Ford and at least one representative of United Auto Workers Union believe that the new generation assembly process will be much less physically taxed.

While car production was meaningful, due to the higher level of robotization and increased focus on the safety of workers, this process still requires to some extent physically, at least to some extent.

For example, workers may have to place dashboards, seats and door panels in a tight space. Tasks such as mounting cable harnesses may require crouching and kneeling. And even if robotic weapons can do cumbersome things, people are still needed to put the parts in place or insert seals and screws.

Now, after a century of improving the moving assembly line, Ford is moving to the next generation of production. The automaker says it is the first in the world to introduce the “tree of assembly”, in which the three pliables are built in parallel and then connect.

“The modules will open,” said Bryce Currie, Vice President of America Manufacturing. “The vehicle will arrive in front of you with all the components in the correct orientation, scanners, electric tools, scratches buildings right there when you move it forward. They less twisting, rotating and bending,” he said.

The Ford Louisville Line projects will be 40% faster, the new car will use half the number of fasers and the number of parts will drop by 20% compared to the “typical vehicle”.

“One of our mantras is, the best is not any part,” said Doug Field, head director EV, digital and designer Ford. “If we swear it, you would never be able to make a toolbar or seat through the opposite,” he told the workers.

The use of “Unicastings” is part of what this allows is the Ford Voltage from Wearing Gigacastings Tesla. Gigacasting is the use of massive, high -pressure casting machines to produce large one -piece vehicles, such as front or rear chassis EV, Instatead ASM from many smaller parts. The Tesla Model Y and Cybertruck use these types of annual large parts.

“Giga just means bigger and bigger,” said Alan Clarke, Executive Director of the Ford Electric Development Development Program. “Uni gives a name to the ambition to make a car in one shot. This is where the industry is heading to get to the Hot Wheels – to do it with a single shot.”

Other changes are smaller, but they could still prove meaningful to workers. Ford gets rid of what he calls “pop clamp”, a “next generation of hose clamps”. In automotive applications, this terminal is metal or plastic bands that are stretched, surround the hose such as a cooler or fuel pipe to ensure it to mount and prevent liquid, cooling, gold air leakage. It is a small tool, but a large point of bread for lines operators, because it only works as it is intended “sometimes”, Clarke said.

He added that he gave a “visceral reaction” from the employed Ford when they heard that the terminals were now gone, replaced by “fast connections”.

We also have the first experience of the vehicle gathering here on Insideevs. Writer Iulian Dnistran, Once Got and Chance to Work on A Assembly Line at One of Ford’s Factories in Europe All The Way Back in 2014. ”I Remember Sweating Like An Olympic Athlete After Struggling to Install the Carpet Through One LINE, SAID IN HIS EXPLAINER OF HOW FORD’S NEW EV PRODUCTION PROCESS WORKS. ”

Now it seems that Ford is trying to alleviate such stress, both for both EV and the world. A part of an $ 2 billion investment will go to this new process for ascension workers.

There is also something to say, where the investment pays off, but Brandon Reisinger looked optimistic. Chairman of the United Auto Workers in Louisville Assembly Plant said he sees a new manufacturing process with a tangible advantage for the world.

“We should have a healthier workforce and be able to go home to their families and will not be painful at the end of the day,” Reisinger said.

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