Mechanical Technology July 2015

⎪ Special report ⎪

for the World’ success story,” says Van der Merwe.

Decades of technology advances The C-Class production history at the East London plant is a story of steady technological advances, which today, with its new state-of-the-art W205 pro- duction line, place MBSA at the forefront of production technology, not only in South Africa, but also in the world. For the W202 in 1994 a new semi- automated welding line made use of special turnover devices (STODS), to make the final welding process more operator-friendly. The technology on that line also included a Steifelmeyer measur- ing machine to check body accuracy. With the arrival of the W203 C-Class in 2000, a new water-based paint shop with climate control was put in place as well as a new body shop with the latest computer-aided clamping, welding robots and laser in-line measuring stations. For the W204 in 2007 specialised robots implemented new technologies such as laser welding and brazing, high- strength steel welding and structural glu- ing. The C-hanger system implemented

The cutting-edge production technologies linked to the new C-Class include components and processes such as aluminium skin panels, complex laser welding, roll forming for complex structural profiles, advanced rear axle carriage assemblies, aluminium pre-treatment and natural fibre pressings.

W202 came off the line 21 years ago, has become one of pride and success, not only for MBSA but also for the Buffalo City Metro Municipality and for the Eastern Cape. The first ever exports of C180s from South Africa were loaded for Australia on Sunday November 15, 1997, beginning MBSA’s ‘Out of Africa,

is being exported in left- and right-hand drive versions to countries on every con- tinent of the world. East London is one of four plants in the world producing the C-Class, the others being: Tuscaloosa in the USA, Bremen in Germany and Beijing in China. “The story of the C-Class, since the

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Mechanical Technology — July 2015