Ford launches new high-tech Stamping Plant for Next-Gen Ranger in Pretoria, South Africa
Ford Motor company announced its investment in Silverton Assembly Plant operations in Pretoria is coming to fruition, with the completion of the high-tech new Stamping Plant, which is now in operation. The vast facility measures a staggering 10 320m2, equivalent to almost 1.5-times the size of a standard soccer field (7 140 m2).
Rhys Davies, Site Transformation Manager, Ford Silverton Assembly Plant: ''Our new Stamping Plant is a first for Ford in South Africa. Previously we used external suppliers to stamp our metal body parts, but we decided to set up our own Stamping Plant for the Next-Gen Ranger, which will go into production later this year. With our focus on delivering the highest levels of quality and efficiency for the Next-Gen Ranger, it was essential that we brought the stamping operations in-house. This ensures that we are able to control the production quality throughout the stamping process, validate that all parts are within specification, and then seamlessly deliver them directly to our new Body Shop located adjacent to the Stamping Plant. The new Stamping facility also dramatically improves our plant capacity and efficiency with a higher level of automation, while eliminating the time, cost and potential damage incurred when transporting these parts by road. Most importantly, it allows us to deliver vehicles of the highest quality to our customers in South Africa and more than 100 markets around the world.''
The Stamping Plant comprises five tandem presses, including a 2 500-ton draw press, a 1 600-ton press and three 1 000-ton presses that stamp the flat sheet metal into the various inner and outer body panels required for all three body styles of the Ranger: Single Cab, SuperCab and Double Cab. The presses are housed in a complete sound abatement enclosure to significantly reduce the noise generated by the stamping operations, with an automated inter-press feeder system transferring the stamped panels along the process to the end of line. The entire line is fully automated, with an installed capacity of 16 strokes per minute.
Jan Groenewald, Area Manager for the Stamping Plant: ''We have 47 die sets with a total of 208 dies producing 67 different parts, including the floorpan, body sides, roof, bonnet, doors and loadbox. To facilitate the movement of the heavy dies, the facility is equipped with a 50-ton automated sling crane, two 60/20 sling cranes, and a 50-ton semi gantry crane. The Silverton Assembly Plant now has an installed capacity for 200 000 vehicles per year. When running at full capacity, the Stamping Plant will be processing 272 tons of steel per day over a three-shift system.''
With an unwavering focus on achieving the highest production quality yet from the Silverton Assembly Plant, the Stamping facility boasts an advanced GOM ATOS ScanBox blue light scanner system. The ScanBox has reduced the scanning and measurement of parts from more than an hour with the previous CMM machines to less than three minutes.