The Washington herald., 1914-03-15
new PLAN FOR final
ASSEMBLING OF CARS
Ford Motor Company Recently Has
Adopted System That Is At
tracing Attention.
FACTORY VISITORS AsToUNDED

The Ford Motor Company, continually
prodded by the extraordinary growth OF
its business to speed up its production
and to discover time and labor-savine
devices. recently adopted new system
for the final assembling OF cars which
gives a visitor to the plant an astonisfr
ingly vivid impression OF the Significance
OF the Ford output.
When one sees thirty rear axles grow
to real motor cars within an hour and
what was, a comparatively few feet
away, an inert piece Of metal roll out the
door a completed, complicated automo.
bile running under its own power. words
fail. The visitor Is stunned. He fails to
grasp all that he would Of the real sig
nificance of the industrial miracle. For
comparisons he gropes around and
stumbles on chickens Matching by the
wholesale in a glass incubator.
Heretofore the final assembling of Ford
cars was a matter of showing a section
of a partially completed car onto a group
Of men. who put in another part and
showed the car on TO the next group.
Cars were thus kept moving along in
four long rows. The same system now
prevails, the assembling being done in
four rows. each 800 feet long. but one OF
the four rows has the advantage Ct a new
arrangement in the way of a conveyor.
With the aid of the conveyor production
is speeded up SO that the line produces
thirty completed cars In an hour. There
Is very keen rivalry among the workmen
of the four different assembling lines,
especially since the adoption Of the me-
chanical conveyor. which is really being
tested out.
At the beginning OF the assembling line
is heap of rear axles. These are
showed from group to group, until the
skeleton of a chassis with wheels is
evolved. Then the conveyor is reached.
This consists merely Of two endless rows
of revolving steel wheels, set in grooves
on which the car rests. Each car is
coupled to the one in front, and a power
device with coupling attachment and
starting lever shoves the row OF coupled
skeletons up the line. Every few feet
stands a group of workmen. under their
own foreman. whose duty is to do one
simple operation in assembling.
One group fastens on the gasoline tank:
another drops in the complete engine;
another fastens the steering apparatus in
place: another puts on q certain bolt.
&c. The long line of skeleton cars, al
ways growing a littJa more like a real
automobile every few feet. moves Just
slowly enough over the rollers of the con-
veyor to give each group OF men time
enough to do one special job. Naturally
there can be no loafing. AS soon as a
radiator is on or a gasoline tank ar
ranged, the next car has crept up and is
waiting to be similarly treated. The fac
tory is so arranged that these various
parts of the car are easily accessible.
Some drop from the floor above by
gravity just where they are needed. some
are carried to their place in the assemb-
ling line by power conveyors.
When the upper end OF the line Is
reached the car Is complete, every part
in place and ready to run. The back
wheels are set spinning by the convss vr
on which they rest. This starts the en-
gine without the necessity OF cranking
il. A tester hcps into the seat. There is
shove Of a lever from behind which
starts the car Off the conveyor. The
clutch is thrown in, and the car rolls
off to the floor. the front wheels hit
swinging door so arranged that this sec
ton opens it automatically, and the car
Is in the shipping yard. where there re-
mains only the jacking up of the rear
wheels for a brief test before running
onto the freight car.
The car you see rolling out into the
yard is the very one you have watched
grow in that line OF magic. 1t Is the
evolution Of that rear axle you saw
sixty minutes ago 800 feet away.