Car Manufacturing Plants rely on castors to move components

January 1, 2016

Ross Castors

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We are all familiar with the sight of men and robots manufacturing cars on huge production lines. However the current production and manufacturing processes in some of the most prodigious and well known car manufacturers, is a sight to behold. In 2008, over seventy million cars were produced worldwide, which equates now to one car for every 11 people on the planet and the figures are still growing. Apart from the recession of 2009, which showed a dip in car production, the numbers are still mind boggling.

Production line manufacturing has its roots with Henry Ford back in 1914 who was one of the first to develop mass production car manufacturing and mass production lines. Henry Ford, a pioneer in car manufacturing, decided to organise his work force, so that certain individuals did a similar assembly process on each car. Henry Ford decided that the motion of workers should be minimized to improve efficiency. All parts or assemblies should be handled either by conveyors, trolleys on castors, or motorized vehicles such as fork lift trucks. With no manual lifting, production processes relied on castors and wheels to move the components and parts. Heavy lifting is done by machines such as overhead cranes or fork lifts and each worker typically performs one simple operation.

Even in those days Henry Ford utilised simple trolleys on castors to hold and move car component parts. Since then, the manufacturing process and production line has greatly expanded, and China is now one of the world's largest producers of motor vehicles, using robots not only to manufacture, but also to pick and relocate the sub assemblies and components. With manufacturing plants all over the world the requirement for castors and wheels is global. On these immense production lines, castors and wheels help to transport a wide variety of components to specific production areas. The organisation of these production lines is to military precision. Usually a vast range of computers and robots manage the daily picking and transportation of vehicle parts, in robotic trolleys on castors. Computer aided trolleys on castors no longer require the use of a man to drive them around the factory to the desired location. Now mini robots housed on automatic trolleys on castors follow pre determined routes around the plant to deliver the right assemblies to the right area in time. Without the use ofcastors and wheels these manoeuvrable picking trolleys would fail at their first hurdle. These automatic trolleys on castors can be programmed to follow a variety of paths to ensure parts arrive at the correct locations.

Not only are there a huge number of these robotic trolleys on castors, but also the production lines themselves are not static. An enormous conveyor system on castors and wheels takes a car shell from initial conception to the finished article. Mass production lines are also a feature which can be applied to a variety of products such as food stuffs and household appliances. The system allows for economies of scale and ultimate efficiency. Without castors and wheels the production lines would grind to a halt!