Caterham - How it's made

[Gingerbread Man]

ghibbett said:

Looking at where they put the silicone/sealer, I would say it's function is pure sealing and that the Tape was doing all the adhering.

Was yours purely with sealer/adhesive?

Yep. Unless the carbon dash was added at a later date. It's a 1999 car.

[IBDAET]

I think there was a fair degree of poetic licence in the production. I am pretty damn sure for example they do not check the alignment of the chassis with a 3D ball probe, though they do (did) of course use one on the F1 cars.

[bertie]

IBDAET said:

I think there was a fair degree of poetic licence in the production. I am pretty damn sure for example they do not check the alignment of the chassis with a 3D ball probe, though they do (did) of course use one on the F1 cars.

Out of interest, having been there I can confirm Mclaren do check every car on a CMM!

[Aeroscreens]

21 years ago the ali dash was rivetted on, none of this modern double-sided tape

[ghibbett]

bertie said:

Out of interest, having been there I can confirm Mclaren do check every car on a CMM!

Sounds about right to me. CMM checking (of the Body-in-White) is standard practice in all OEMs.

[bertie]

ghibbett said:

bertie said:

Out of interest, having been there I can confirm Mclaren do check every car on a CMM!

Sounds about right to me. CMM checking (of the Body-in-White) is standard practice in all OEMs.

Really?

Last volume place I went round it was done on a sample basis, not 100% , but it was a few years ago.

[ghibbett]

Depends on the OEM and volume, however note I'm talking about measuring Bodies (BiW therefore prior to Painting) and not complete vehicles.

[IBDAET]

A McLaren is a substancially more expensive car (over 10x the price of a 160) so you would expect this.

Seeing as the chassis is shown to be welded in a jig by hand, I would expect the measurement to be equally rudimentary.

Aeroscreens said:

21 years ago the ali dash was rivetted on, none of this modern double-sided tape

Sellotaped (metal)dash is another way to getermine a metric chassis....

[bertie]

ghibbett said:

Depends on the OEM and volume, however note I'm talking about measuring Bodies (BiW therefore prior to Painting) and not complete vehicles.

So are there volume guys doing CMM on 100%?

I've been round a few car plants, but as I say it was a few years ago and I' m not a mech eng.

[Dr Slotter]

Was at Castle Bromwich the other day and ISR the F-Type BiW chassis are CMM checked. If you've got a cycle time of a few minutes it would be easy to fit in, but cycle times of less than a minute would be tricky from a line balancing point of view.