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The stamping motorcycle parts /
presses and coils are so heavy and the pressure used to stamp the
pieces is so great, that the floors in Stamping had to be
specially engineered to withstand the incredible force. Under the
die areas the floor is more than four feet thick and used 90,000
cubic yards of cement. That’s the equivalent of a road 10 feet
wide and one foot deep from stamping motorcycle parts!
A huge part of Stamping lies unseen beneath the plant floor. In
this thundering underground labyrinth are tanks of oil and the
hydraulic equipment that pressurizes the machines. This is also
where metal trimmings from the blanking and stamping operations
drop onto conveyor belts underneath the presses. Some 200 tons of
scrap metal a day feed into a main conveyor that transports them
to a baling operation. Pieces of various shapes and sizes are
collected and then crushed in a kind of giant trash compactor. A
huge magnet loads the resulting 350-pound blocks onto trucks.
They’re sold to a metal recycling company where they are melted
down and used to make pipes, beams, plates and other steel
products.
Stamping motorcycle parts constructed a new $47-million stamping
line in 2000. This state-of-the-art project produces parts twice
as fast as older lines. It also stamps two parts (like left and
right doors) simultaneously and combines the Corolla body side and
quarter panels into a single stamping motorcycle part, saving
still more time and money. |
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