LEADERSHIP
32
The importance of bringing new and innovative products to market cannot be underestimated . However , Ford has found success by utilising a historical technique that once helped protect knights from fatal attacks from their rivals . The automotive giant has recently unveiled the world ’ s first fully automated hot-forming process for auto parts , which it says will enable its all-new Ford Focus cars to become safer than ever before .
Built as part of a € 600mn ( US $ 690mn ) investment at its Saarlouis Vehicle Assembly Plant in Germany , Torsten Hallfeldt , Stamping Supervisor at Ford , explains the process of how the hot forming process works . “ The hot forming process is not a new technology . In almost all car bodies , there are hot forming parts and you need a special material ,” he says . “ This material is a blank sheet and is going through a furnace . It ’ s around 40m long and we heat up the sheet to around 930 ° C in order to change the microstructure and weaken the material .”
With the hot formed steel blanks heated to such high temperatures , the blanks are unloaded by robots and put into a hydraulic press , with a closing force of up to 1,150 tonnes . They are subsequently shaped and
MARCH 2019