How a Car Is Built

LABORATORY REPORT MECT 1364

Spring, 2014

LAB SECTION #1, Tuesday 1:00 – 400

LAB # 1 “How a Car is Built”

Student’s Name: Kyle Wu__________        Student’s ID: 1165596______

Graded by: _________________________         Date Due: January 21, 2014

Date Graded: _____________________

Transportation in our modern day America has evolved dramatically. With the advancement of technology, people ten years ago would not have believe it would exist or could even exist. A manufacturing company called Ford Motor Company has proved itself to one of the dominant companies in the automobile department. The legendary Ford Mustang was the automaker’s most successful vehicle since their Model A. The video “How a Car is Built” discusses and shows viewers how this legend is built in five major steps.

The beginning of the process of creating the Mustang starts at the Assembly plant located in Dearborn, Michigan. The soon to be car travels a total of nine miles and gets stamped, dipped, and sprayed a countless number of times before it races down our streets. The first step of the creation is located on heavy-duty trucks that deliver large spools of steel materials to the factory. They are then unrolled like toilet paper into a cutting machine. This is the beginning of the stamping process. The machine is then shape and formed to be the main structure of the car. After that is complete, the parts are then moved to the second step, the assembly line. I found this rather interesting because the video includes a little history lesson about the company. The founder Henry Ford was the person responsible for the development of the assembly line. He was also the first one to develop and manufacture the first automobile. His ideas saved the cost and time for Americans all over the world.  There is only one difference in mass production from the past and the present time. Workers had to do everything by hand but now people have the pleasure to work with robots. The robots do most of the welding that is now turned into the body of the car.  It goes through an inspection to make sure everything is in the proper position. Pre-assembled doors and seat belts are then added. This process is called “Setting The Door”.  Rear deck fixtures and bolts are secured to stabilize the car. Last part of this step is the setting the plastic hood. Step three of making the mustang is the painting process. The car travels to the paint shop and has several layers of paint sprayed onto the body. The paint the Assembly paint uses is called E coat. The paint is put on electro statically. Therefore, this room is very dangerous due to the high voltage surrounding the car. The body structure of the car is carefully polished and cleaned off of dust. Then it can be painted a variety of different colors. After three hours of careful and intensive painting and heating, the car heads off to the next step of the assembly line. Step four is where the inside of the car starts getting put into place. Everything on the inside such as the dashboard was all pre-assembled nearby for convenience. Windows, license plate brackets, rear taillights, steering wheels and air bags are all included in this step of the assembly. The last part installed in this step is the windshield that is super glued onto the car. The final step to this long process is actually bringing the car to life. The engine and major components are finally being assembled to the body of the car. Drive shaft and gas tank are installed from the bottom of the car. The rear axle is hoisted up by a heavy-duty machine into place so workers can bolt and screw it tight. Machines combine aluminum wheel rims and tires and workers lock them into place on the car. Now we are nearly complete. The final details are the seats and small details that come with the car. The last thing to do is to put the key in the ignition and bring the car to life.  America now has a brand new Mustang ready to ride the streets!