Ford-T is the first mass-produced vehicle. Making one car a month at the beginning of the 20th century is not an easy task for a team of qualified mechanics and technologists, but it can be done. It is quite possible to assemble a dozen machines in the same time in the presence of specialized assembly slipways, uninterrupted supply of components to the posts and a team of trained assemblers. However, even a thousand workers using the most modern equipment for that time would not have been able to produce tens of thousands of cars a month.

Henry Ford founded his first automobile company with the name Detroit Automobile Company in the distant century before last - in 1899. True, a year later the company went bankrupt, but Ford managed to release several racing cars during this time - the great entrepreneur was well aware that without massive advertising of cars, which at that time was provided exclusively by speed records and victories in auto races, there would be no great demand for the company's cars. And in 1901, at the next competition, Henry Ford managed to overtake the famous American race car driver, US champion Alexander Winton in his car called F-999.

In 1903, Henry Ford founded a more respectable firm called Ford Motor Company, which was founded by twelve businessmen (including brothers John and Horace Dodge, who were engaged in the production of engines), and Ford himself became vice president of the new company, its chief engineer and while holding a 25.5% stake. The production of cars was located in Detroit, in the premises of a former factory for the manufacture of horse carts and vans.

By that time, Ford had already developed the concept of a "people's car" - reliable, inexpensive, easy to maintain and repair. The first car on the way to the "popular" was the Ford-A released in 1904 (by the way, it should not be confused with the 1928 model, which later began to be produced in our country under the name GAZ-A). It was a two-seater little car with a two-cylinder 8-horsepower engine, which cost $ 850. In the first year, about 1,700 of these cars were sold - a pretty decent figure at that time.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the technology for the production of cars differed little from that used in the manufacture of horse vans. The company ordered most of the components from outside, and carried out the assembly at the plant itself. It was produced at stationary posts, and every car, from the radiator to the exhaust pipe, was assembled by a team of two or three skilled workers.

In 1905, a four-seater Ford-B with a 24-horsepower four-cylinder engine was launched. Accordingly, the price of the car jumped to $ 2,000, which contradicted Ford's concept of the "people's car". According to historians, the release of Ford-B was a concession to the company's shareholders, who did not believe in the successful mass production of inexpensive cars and advocated the creation of expensive cars for wealthy buyers. The same concession to companions became the Ford-K with a six-cylinder engine, released in 1906.

Meanwhile, Henry Ford worked hard to promote his "people's car" concept. At the same time, his main task was to buy back shares from the conservative owners of the Ford Motor Company - Ford had no other way to get rid of their short-sighted tutelage.

In 1908, the designers and technologists of the company prepared for the release of the quintessence of the concept of the "people's car" -Ford-T, which became the most famous and one of the most popular cars in the history of the automotive industry. The design of the car was carried out by Joseph Galamb and Child Harold Wills - of course, under the constant patronage of Ford.

Ford-T was a car with a four-cylinder 15-horsepower engine, capable of accelerating to 63 km / h. The design of the car was extremely pragmatic and cheap, but all parts and mechanisms had a margin of safety and strength, quite sufficient for their long service.

The car had excellent maintainability; in addition, the company established the production of basic components, which could be replaced not only by a professional mechanic, but also by the owner of the car. Ford-T had an enviable cross-country ability due to a huge ground clearance of 250 mm, large wheels with tires with a diameter of about 780 mm and a sufficiently flexible engine characteristics. All this made the Ford-T very attractive not only for city dwellers, but also for farmers and villagers.

The design of the car was meticulously worked out and calculated. According to some technical historians, the creators of the Ford-T widely used high-strength vanadium steel in its design, which made it possible to make many parts lighter and stronger than on other cars. True, many skeptics deny this, motivating their point of view by the fact that the use of steel with an admixture of vanadium should have significantly increased the cost of the machine, but in fact its price was constantly decreasing.

The frame of the car had spars of constant cross-section. The wheels were suspended on two transverse semi-elliptical springs.

To reduce the weight of the car, Wills proposed to equip it with a planetary gearbox, which is lighter and more compact than the classic ones, with fixed shaft bearings. In addition, gear shifting in the planetary gearbox was carried out without disconnecting the gear wheels - it was only necessary to brake the corresponding stage of the "planetary". This unusual transmission provided two gears forward and one reverse, with gear shifting using two pedals and a lever.

And yet - to simplify and reduce the cost of the car, the engine did not provide for a valve adjustment mechanism. For the same reason, the wheels of the car were made non-removable - if necessary, only tires were dismantled (later, wheel rims), and the all-metal body of future versions had a simplified design, which is why the Americans called Ford-T in their own way - Tin Lizzy (“Tin Lizzy "). By the way, Tin is translated from English as white (tinned) tin or tin can, and American farmers most often named their horses after Lizzy, so the nickname could be translated as "tin horse".

The four-cylinder engine with a removable cylinder head, an integral block of cylinders and a gearbox combined with the engine into a single unit, has become a small technical masterpiece. First of all, it was extremely simple - there were no water and oil pumps in it - the cooling system was thermosyphon (that is, water circulated in it due to the temperature difference), and the crankshaft and cylinders were lubricated by spraying. The car also lacked a gas pump - fuel from a cylindrical tank located under the front seats entered the engine by gravity. Interestingly, when driving uphill, gasoline sometimes stopped flowing into the carburetor, but this did not bother the quick-witted Yankees - the driver turned the car 180 degrees, turned on the reverse gear and boldly overcame the rise.

The compression ratio was only 4.5: 1, which made the motor very reliable for long-term operation. With a displacement of 2.893 liters, the Tin Lizzy engine developed 22.5 hp, and its torque reached 112 Nm at a crankshaft speed of 1800 rpm. The weight of the car, depending on the type of body, ranged from 788 to 906 kg. With a standard gear ratio of the main gear of 3.67, the speed reached 65 - 70 km / h. Gasoline consumption (according to the All-Russian test run, which took place in 1912) was about 11 liters per 100 kilometers.

The clutch mechanism is "wet" type, its main parts were three steel discs located in an oil bath. Further, the torque was transmitted to a two-speed gearbox. The gearbox shafts and gears were machined from hardened vanadium steel. The lubrication system, which held about 4 liters of oil, was the same for the entire power plant. Liquid cooling system radiators were initially purchased from France, and then Ford Motor Company began to make them independently. Although the standard Tin Lizzy had a top speed of around 70 km / h, the racing variants of the Ford-T went up to 150 km / h.

The fuel tank held 45 liters - at a flow rate of 11 liters per 100 km, the car could travel about 400 km - an important indicator for the beginning of the 20th century, when even in the USA gas stations were rarely found on the roads.

It should be noted that at the beginning of the 20th century, there were no well-established stereotypes in the automotive industry - in particular, each company placed the driver's chair as it seemed more comfortable. Starting with the Ford-T, drivers of Ford cars were destined to sit exclusively on the left side.

Ford-T had a number of features that had to be considered during its operation. As you know, the car did not have an electric starter, and the engine was started using a handle. In the cold season, when the oil in the transmission was thick, this operation was unsafe - the engine was not completely disconnected from the transmission, and the car started to move, trying to crush its owner. There was one more trouble when starting the engine - as a rule, only two or three cylinders were immediately "grabbed" from it. The fourth one entered into work with a 2 - 3-second delay, so that during these 2 - 3 seconds the car along with the passengers was shaking feverishly.

Incandescent headlights appeared on the Ford-T in 1919 and were powered by a low-voltage magneto coil. When driving slowly (in fog or at night, and even on a muddy country road), the headlights dimmed and the lamps began to blink.

Nevertheless, the Tin Lizzy had a reputation for being a very reliable and durable car with excellent cross-country ability due to significant ground clearance and large diameter wheels. At the beginning of the 20th century, the United States was famous for its off-roading, so, according to many historians of technology, it was these qualities of the Ford-T that allowed it to become the car from which the massive motorization of America began.

A careful analysis of the Ford-T design shows that it was noticeably different from the cars of those years in the originality of many of its components. So, the magneto consisted of 16 horseshoe-shaped magnets attached to the engine flywheel, and 16 coils installed opposite them, inside the crankcase. When the flywheel (and, accordingly, the magnets) rotated, a low voltage electromotive force was induced in the coils, which was converted into a high voltage with the help of bobbin coils and breakers.

The design features of the Ford-T became the reason that the controls on it were somewhat different, and they were located in a completely different way from the cars of other brands. Accordingly, specific skills were required to drive such a car. In particular, the Tin Lizzy did not have a gas pedal, and its functions were performed by a small lever mounted on the right under the steering column. There were no three pedals in a row familiar to modern drivers. At first, the first two thousand cars had only two pedals and two large levers to the left of the driver. Later, three pedals were installed on the Ford-T (although they were not arranged in a row, but along the vertices of a triangle), and one of the two levers was excluded. At the same time, with the help of the left pedal the driver switched on the first gear, and with the help of the right one - rear drum brakes and ... reverse gear. So it was not easy to operate the car - it took a lot of time to learn.

The Tin Lizzy's braking system was also different from those used on competitors' cars, and the braking process on the Ford-T was one of the most difficult to drive. The fact is that it was not easy to “sink in” the brake pedal and brake lever to stop the Ford-T. As mentioned above, the Tin Lizzy had two brakes - transmission, driven from the floor lever - it was a steel band, with which the main shaft of the transmission was locked, and drum brakes of the rear wheels, driven from the right pedal. Brake linings at that time were cast from bronze, so they wore out quickly, and replacing them was quite time consuming.

The suspension of the Ford-T, even by the standards of the early 20th century, was not the height of perfection. The front and rear wheels were mounted on a kind of movable spindles mounted on quarter-elliptical springs. The steering rods were steel, unregulated; one end of each was attached to the steering column hinge, and the other to the spindle housing. It should be noted that the Tin Lizzy steering system did not have any lubricated parts. Ford rightly judged that vanadium steel already has good wear resistance, and another lubrication system would lead to a rise in the cost of the car.

The tires of the car were rubber, tube. The hub and spokes were cut from a special, so-called "artillery" wood, reinforced in loaded places with bronze bandages. Oddly enough, Ford, always a fierce fan of unification, used front and rear wheels of various sizes in the Tin Lizzy design, which forced drivers to carry not one, but two spare wheels or several cameras!

Interior equipment Ford-T, to put it mildly, did not shine with luxury. A large wooden steering wheel with a diameter of 360 mm with bronze spokes was firmly fixed to the end of the steering shaft. On the right under it were two short bronze levers with rubber tips - one of them controlled the fuel supply, and the other - the ignition. On the basic version of the car, the speedometer was not provided.

1 - ignition timing lever; 2 - beep button; 3 - carburetor throttle control lever; 4 - ignition lock; 5 - ammeter; 6 - instrument illumination lamp; 7 - control button for the carburetor starting device; 8 - steering wheel; 9 - drum brake lever; 10 - clutch pedal; 11 - pedal for engaging reverse gear; 12 - transmission brake pedal; 13 - speedometer

Although the components and assemblies of Tin Lizzy were unusual in design, their dismantling and repair was so simple that even unskilled mechanics in primitive workshops could perform this work. The fact is that the designers and technologists of the Ford Motor Company during the design period of the Ford-T drew attention to the experience of the Cadillac company, which widely used the principle of interchangeability of parts and assemblies on its cars. Leveraging this experience allowed Ford Motor Company to manufacture parts to such tolerances that they would fit any car in the series without additional fit.

By 1910 - 1911, the company had exhausted almost all resources to reduce costs and increase the production of Ford-T. And her next step was the rationalization of the technological process of manufacturing a car, which consists in replacing the brigade assembly of a car with a conveyor assembly.

Many consider the conveyor to be Henry Ford's invention, but this is not entirely true - the great entrepreneur only used the principle of the conveyor line, which operated at that time in one of the Chicago abattoirs.

To begin with, Ford ordered one of the assembly shops to be cleared and arranged a kind of conveyor in it, for which a string of automobile chassis, connected by ropes, was installed in the shop; along the moving line of cars assemblers were located, performing one or two operations. The experiment was successful, and on October 7, 1913, the first automobile assembly line was launched at Ford's Highland Park plant. Then other shops were equipped with similar conveyors; later, all these lines were united, thus creating a complex for a complete conveyor assembly of cars. As a result, hundreds of thousands of cars a year began to leave the conveyor that worked round the clock (three shifts of 8 hours), while the price of the car dropped to $ 350, and the total production of Ford-T was 15 million cars!

Interestingly, the famous Ford phrase “The buyer has the right to buy a car of any color, provided that its color is black” appeared exactly after the conveyor was launched - only fast-drying Japanese black enamel corresponded to the frantic pace of assembly.

By the mid-1920s, Ford-T sales began to decline. Ford, who considered Tin Lizzy a complete masterpiece, stubbornly held on to the worked-out design - and this despite the fact that the tastes of buyers changed, the roads improved, and technical progress went forward, and did not stagnate. But the main thing is that competitors were not asleep, creating, although more expensive, but more comfortable, more reliable, more powerful and faster cars, painted in the colors chosen by the fastidious buyer.

Ford also had to order quick-drying enamels of various colors for Tin Lizzy, install an electric starter on it, move the fuel tank from under the seat under the engine hood, reduce the size of the wheels and increase the diameter of the steering wheel. In addition, the frame of the car was lowered relative to the wheels by 39 mm, and the wings and body were given a more modern shape.

However, by 1927, the Ford-T was completely outdated, giving way to the more stylish and more sophisticated cars of rival firms. And on May 31, 1927, the factories of the Ford Motor Company were closed for six months in order to re-equip them for the production of a completely new Ford-A car, which awaited the fame no less than that of Tin Lizzy.

Technical characteristics of the car Ford-T

Year of issue…………………………………. ……………………………………… 1908
Length, mm …………………………………… .. ……………………………………… 3556
Width, mm …………………………………. ……………………………………… 1676
Wheelbase, mm …………………………. ……………………………………… 2553
Front / rear track, mm ……………. ……………………………… 1446/1461
Weight, kg ……………………………………………………………………………. 698.5
Maximum speed, km / h ………. ……………………………………… .67.5
Average fuel consumption, l / 100 km .. ………………………………………… .14
Engine …………………………………… .. ………………………………… in-line
Number of cylinders …………………. ……………………………………………4
Working volume, l ………………………… .. …………………………………… ..2,895
Compression ratio …………………………… .. ……………………………………… ..4,5
Power, hp ……………………………… ………………………………………… 20
Clutch……………………………………. ……… "wet" multi-disc
Check point …………………………………………… .. …………………… two-stage
Suspension………………………………………. ………… .on semi-elliptical transverse springs
Steering gear ………………………… ………………………… .screw and nut
Brakes …………………………………………………………………. Mechanical drum brakes on rear wheels with manual drive
Transmission brake …………… .. ………………………… tape, with pedal drive
Wheels ………………………………………… .. …… .wooden, spoked
Tires …………………………………………………… ..pneumatic 30 "x 3 1/2"
Body……………………………………………. …… .open, "torpedo" type
Frame ……………………………………………… .. spar, with front and rear cross members

05.05.2016 Car assembly line

Today we all use technically complex things, but not everyone thinks about the process that precedes the result. For example, a modern passenger car contains about 20 thousand parts inside. Many factories that assemble cars conduct excursions, so everyone can visit the factory and see the main stages of car assembly with their own eyes. For a nominal fee, you can even get to the BMW factory.

For those who still do not have the opportunity to see everything with their own eyes, consider the main stages of car assembly.

The production process of a car begins with a stamping shop, or press shop.

The prepared steel sheets come here, which undergo stamping, bending, punching, as a result of which each body panel gets its own final look.

Following the molding of the body parts is the welding stage. The stamped parts go to the welding shop, where parts of the car bottom, side parts of the body, and then the roof are connected on an automated line.

At the final stage of body welding, attachments are installed: fenders, hood and trunk, doors.

Thanks to modern robotic lines, the body of the future car appears literally before our eyes.

Further, the already assembled body is sent for galvanizing and priming. These operations are necessary to protect the vehicle from corrosion and to prepare it for further painting. Also at this stage, soundproofing mats are installed, an anti-gravel coating is applied to the bottom of the car to protect the body from chips.

In the paint shop, robots paint the exterior body parts, apply varnish to ensure an attractive look and shine, and then place the body in an oven to dry the paintwork. At the final stage, the body surface is waxed to protect it from external influences and to protect the body cavities from corrosion.

The assembly is carried out in the following order:

• The engine and attachments are installed
• Assembling the suspension and steering mechanism
• Electrical wiring, seat belts, airbags, ABS system are installed;
• interior elements (carpet, seats, panel, rear shelf) and exterior are mounted.

After the assembly of the vehicle is completed, before the vehicle reaches the buyer, each vehicle is tested. The appearance of the car, the quality of the installation of attachments, the quality of the paintwork are checked. The functional part is also necessarily carried out: the camber angles of the wheels are corrected, the performance characteristics of the engine are checked at the stand. The transmission, ABS system, chassis and all electronic systems and devices of the vehicle are tested. Only after that does the plant transport the finished car to the dealership, where a happy buyer will be waiting for it.

Replacing spark plugs is one of the simplest operations for engine maintenance and repair. Individual problems arising during their dismantling or reinstallation are easily resolved. Some confusion can be caused by the rich selection of different types of spark plugs from well-known and little-known manufacturers. Naturally, the car owner, purchasing a new kit, expects to improve the performance of the motor. At the same time, the type of spark plugs is specified in the vehicle operating instructions; it is not recommended to change it.

When buying a brand new car, the owner often receives a technical inspection sheet. Many manufacturers of foreign cars indicate specific terms for passing the next technical inspection, and this must be done so that the car remains under warranty. However, some sellers offer a so-called zero (or intermediate) inspection option in the list of technical inspections, the mileage for which is set at 5000-7000 km. What is such a car inspection? Is it worth it? What are especially

Videos related to the car assembly process give us an idea of \u200b\u200bwhat we are only guessing. We tried to pick ten of the most engaging stories for you.

Fiat Panda. Four years ago, Fiat posted an interesting video showing how the new Panda is being built. The manufacturer has invested more than 800 million euros in the modernization and refurbishment of the very large Pomigliano factory in southern Italy near Naples. Machines are manufactured with utmost precision thanks to robots that show how redundant we are when it comes to manual labor. One thing is clear: Fiat really knows how to build a small car - in this, in fact, they are professionals.

Aston Martin Cygnet. The Cygnet cost two and a half times as much as the car it was based on, the Toyota IQ. So in an attempt to answer all the critics who claim the Cygnet is nothing more than a posh iQ spiced up with some extras and a different grille, the British automaker posted a video. It gives an idea of \u200b\u200bthe 150 man-hours required to assemble one vehicle. While the special colors and premium materials will no doubt impress a small number of buyers, in the end the fact remains: Cygnet is an iQ dressed in a fashionable suit that didn't even come close to justifying its price tag.

Citroen DS5. Have you seen Chinese cars made in, say, last year? All of them are obsessed with chrome surfaces, ornate lighting technology and advanced equipment. Citroen DS5 also fits this description, so the French decided to stop importing the model and build it locally. Two years ago, the company began local production of the DS5 in Shenzhen to tactically “craft” the world's second largest premium market. Video summary: there is no difference in the quality of Chinese and French Citroens!

Dodge Viper. Official production of the new Viper began in 2013 at Conner Avenue Assembly in Detroit. It was followed by a small celebration in which Fiat-Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne took part. The New York Times has published a video and several photos showing the path from the bare frame to the final product. An accelerated video demonstrates the various stages of the Viper's production, from engine inspection to bodyless vehicle dyno testing.

Morgan Plus 8. The Morgan Motor Company has been making vehicles since 1909, and the first proper car (not a stroller or tricycle) appeared in 1936. It was 4/4, and although 7 others later joined this model, it is still being produced (!). Plus 8 is one of those other models, and the Telegraph sent a film crew to watch the assembly process. It takes 30 days to create each sample of the Plus 4 eight-cylinder version. One of the reasons for this duration is the manual processing of the wooden body. But we don’t have to spend a month looking at it, as Telegraph has compressed the process to two delicious minutes.

Bugatti Veyron. It is still difficult to realize that the Bugatti Veyron project has finally come to its logical end. Even today, 10 years after the start of production, the car is still an engineering marvel. Saying goodbye to the hypercar at the last Geneva auto show, Bugatti promised that the successor is on the way. Before we move on to the company's next step, let's focus on the last piece of the batch, called the Grand Sport Vitesse La Finale. The video released allows us to take a peek into Bugatti's sci-fi workshop and watch the car being assembled.

Hedman Hedders exhaust manifold. Let's take a break from the cars and focus on their components for a moment. With Hedman Hedders, you can trace the exhaust manifold from a simple steel pipe to a high-performance piece of equipment. The company uses computerized systems to bend pipes with precision before welding, and these guys stitch the individual pieces into pieces of art. Each element is checked on special devices to maintain quality control of the entire assembly. The final product is either coated with black paint for shipping or a special ceramic coating that is resistant to oxidation.

Lexus steering wheel. Many people believe that Japanese cars are made by robots without the intervention of passion and soul. And if you want "passion and soul" at a reasonable price, go to the Italians. There is also an opinion that the Germans make "luxury" much better. All of these arguments are flawed, however, as lack of attention to detail is not the case when it comes to the wood-trimmed steering wheel of the new Lexus LS. Options include walnut, shimamoku wood and silver maple. The Lexus LS 600h L also offers an environmentally friendly bamboo finish. Take a look at how skillful the Japanese craftsmen are and how many production stages go through just one small piece of cladding. To create a "striped" effect, alternate layers of dark and light veneers. The entire process takes 38 days and requires 67 production steps. The same trim, other than the steering wheel, can be found on the dash and center console strip.

Forgiato wheels. Forgiato Wheels, a company that does exactly what you think, decided to make the process of making a rim extremely sexy. After all, no one wants to pay $ 2,000 for an alloy wheel knowing that someone named Jose made it. Several girls (or clones of the same one) in white underwear use all their production skills to ... However, you will see for yourself.

Skoda Fabia vRS. And finally, a little humor from Skoda. No comments:)