Ever wondered who makes your favourite vehicles? We found out what the four main car manufacturing processes are to pass on to our lucky readers.
Car manufacturing isn’t something that we think about on the day to day. Sure, most of us appreciate that our cars come from somewhere, but we don’t ever think about what goes into physically building our vehicles. Car manufacturing is a form of both automotive engineering and manufacturing engineering. Automotive engineering covers a broad variety of careers which are involved in the automation of processes. Manufacturing engineering on the other hand, covers the processes involved in making any designed product – from cars to entertainment systems. The world of car manufacturing is therefore an interesting crossover between the two.
How do we design and build cars?
There are four main stages involved in car manufacturing. We examine each of these stages in more detail below. If you are interested in the Manufacturing Jobs and careers that will enable you to build cars for yourself, you should see the Hays website. Otherwise stick with us while we investigate the four production processes used by car manufacturers like Toyota to create high end, safe vehicles.
1 – Stamping out the plate metal sheets
To begin with, automotive designers use factory machines to laser cut the sheets of metal needed to design the frame of the car. This is a highly precise process that we complete through use of computer algorithms and automated technology on the production line. This method is how manufacturing engineers make the bonnets, boot, doors, and other panels of your car.
2 – Welding together the materials
Like a jigsaw, factory arms assemble your car on the production line. Hundreds of mechanical robot arms – created and designed by either the automotive engineers or the manufacturing engineers on site – put your vehicle together. As many as 400 car body parts must be welded together to create the finished product. This stage would take hours in the past. Now that robot arms perform it, the process is faster. Introducing robot arms in this stage of production means welds are impeccable and the risk of injury on the factory floor is far lower.
3 – The painting process
When engineers weld the car together, the painting process can be. To paint a car inside a factory, they go through a spraying room as part of the production line. This room p=blasts the vehicle from the walls and ceiling using a fine spray of paint. Since the vehicle is only a metal shell at this point, paint doesn’t get anywhere that it isn’t supposed to go. Spraying a car before engineers add the car parts means you need less precision. This allows for faster work.
4 – Adding the parts
Before your car can go to the display floor, it needs parts enough to make it run smoothly. Mechanical arms and engineers place the parts inside the car before they sell it. The windows and bumpers are two of the last parts to go onto a car, ensuring they stay flawless until the finish.
