Miscellaneous Features Beta
Volkswagen Eos Factory Tour - Palmela, Portugal
By by: Jamie Vondruska
Aug 16, 2006, 11:34

We have toured quite a few automobile factories over the years and it is always a unique experience to watch something go from raw materials to the cars we enjoy so much. VWvortex recently had an opportunity to tour Volkswagen's Autoeuropa factory in Portugal where the new Eos is being built. While the Autoeuropa factory has been around for over ten years building the Sharan and Ford Galaxy joint project, the Eos is their newest baby and something they are intensely proud of.

The Eos is also the first product Autoeuropa will export to the North American market and everyone we spoke to at the factory is taking it very seriously. A factory liason from Portugal has been assigned to oversee the Eos launch here in the States to ensure it goes smoothly, that any quality issues are dealt with in advance, and to even know the competition inside and out. How seriously do they want to make sure this car is right? She had more than a dozen pre-production Eos models shipped over to the U.S. to be beat-on by Volkswagen of America staff for several months in advance of the launch to make sure any last minute issues or problems were caught ahead of of the start of production. Overall, we were impressed with the personal level of pride everyone at the Portugese factory takes in trying to make sure their facility is number one. Volkswagen AG must feel the same way as the Autoeuropa factory will also build the forthcoming "Scirocco" coupe in late 2007.

Volkswagen's Autoeuropa factory lies in a costal area on the outskirts of Lisbon, Portugal, called Palmela. This state-of-the-art facility encompasses more than 2,000,000 square metres or close to 500 acres of space. Of this, 271 acres are devoted to the production division, with an additional 225 acres occupied by a supplier park that surrounds the main factory. The supplier park is within a stone's throw of the factory and is the headquarters for 15 of the 65 Portuguese suppliers. The close proximity of the park guarantees an efficient and very close relationship between the Volkswagen and its suppliers.

History

The Autoeuropa plant in Portugal has been in operation since April 1995. It was set up in 1991 as a result of a joint project to build a van/people mover between Volkswagen and Ford. Ford took care of factory planning and the purchase, while Volkswagen was responsible for motor vehicle development. This was the genesis of the largest-yet foreign investment project in Portugal. Since 1999 the Palmela plant has been a wholly-owned subsidiary of Volkswagen AG and Ford has since pulled out and ended production of the Galaxy at the Portugal facility. Volkswagen has now converted the Galaxy assembly line into a new line for the Eos.

Production

In 2005 the Palmela plant produced about 79,900 vehicles: the VW Sharan, the Seat Alhambra and the Ford Galaxy, only 1.6% of which stayed in the Portugese market. A 600 million Euro investment has been made in the Autoeuropa factory to support production of the Eos. 51 new die sets were necessary to make 77 new parts for the Eos. 114 new robots were put in place to handle more than 4,600 weld point, 224 stud welds and 4.3 meters of state-of-the-art laser welding technology. 63 new specific lines were created to support the Eos production.


Workforce

At the end of December 2005, Volkswagen Autoeuropa employed about 2,800 people. Surrounding suppliers employ an additional 2,350 with outside vendors adding 3,750 more jobs bringing the total to more than 8,800.

The Tour

What follows below is a short pictoral tour spread over the next several pages. We have included captions for the photos below each one describing what is seen in the photo. We hope you enjoy the tour...

(above) The Autoeuropa factory as seen from the air. The factory itself occupies more than 11.5 million square feet.


(above) The process all starts with raw materials. Carefully considered suppliers provide the best sheet metal possible and deliveries arrive 24 hours a day. Most all of the materials and parts in the factories are delivered on a "just-in-time" basis so there is very little in the way of storage facilities and raw materials or parts stacked up. The above amount of sheet metal will only last a few hours and is constantly being replenished through the 24-hour work day.

Volkswagens have characteristic flowing lines, making exacting demands on the dimensional precision of the body panels. The tool and jig construction division provides the necessary basis for this. Specialists in Wolfsburg can turn even the most complex shapes into reality with the "tools" they construct. A "tool" is a form used to create a pattern (a fender for instance) out of raw sheet metal. Some of these tools weigh more than 50 tons and have to endure very exacting and long lifecycles of constant pounding in the presses.

Sheet metal is "alive" say the experts, meaning that the shape of the pressed part after the deep-drawing process is not absolutely identical with that of the die. The metal always reverts a little after shaping. From years of experience, the specialist toolmakers know how various factors influence the dimensional precision of pressed parts. Knowledge of the interaction between nature and materials, sheet thickness and the extent of deformation are all parts of the foundation for high quality in body construction.

Good tool and jig construction is key to determining how wide and how accurate the panel gaps are and how precisely the sheetmetal is formed. The Wolfsburg press shop processes some 1,500 tons of sheet metal a day. All the sheet stock is pretreated in various anti-corrosion processes. The material used for the outer bodyshell skin is a light matte grey, having been galvanized by electrolysis for an especially fine surface. By comparison, a bright metallic surface indicates that it has been treated in the melting bath - also known as hot-dip galvanization. This is a robust material for the floor pan and internal parts.


(above) Unrolled and stamped into blanks, the sheet metal is transported to the press lines. Here large capacity vacuum presses like the one above force up to 6000 tons of pressure to achieve the desired shape. Deep-drawing is divided into several stages. The entire process runs simultaneously and at low noise within one machine. The process is monitored by cameras and transmitted to a central location. Of particular importance are the the dimensionally-critical parts, for example the floor pan for manufacture of the platform; these parts are made only in Wolfsburg. They form the basis of every vehicle body, thus ensuring high precision and quality at all plants they are supplied to like Autoeuropa.


(above) Here, stored on these racks stacked more than 3 stories high, are the Eos side sheetmetal panels waiting to be welded to a chassis.

(above) An Eos body-in-white sits on display in the production area to show all the various weld points necessary to piece the car together. The Eos has more than 4,600 individual weld points and utilizes more than 4.2 meters of state-of-the-art laser welding to ensure as stiff a structure as possible - 23.5 Hz for the first torsional mode. Volkswagen also uses high-strength and "die-quenched" steels in the floor and side structure to make up for the crash strength lost due to the roof not being an integral structure member any longer. A die-quenched reinforcing tube between the B-pillars (seen in photo) and a specially developed "arrester hook" act as intrusion-limiting elements in the doors. The reinforced A-pillars and active extending rollover bars in the rear headrests together provide protection for all seats in the event of a roll-over. Seat belt pretensioners secure the front passengers in their seats to minimize the likelihood of ejection from the car. The rear pop-up rollbars are resetable and can be unlocked and pushed back into their normal position.


(above) Robots work to weld a rear spare tire well together. This is the only major structural difference between the European Eos and the North American version; our well is designed to accommodate a spare tire.


(above) At this stage robots work to assemble the ground chassis parts on to which exterior sheetmetal is welded.


(above) This is the station where the side sheetmetal is affixed to the main chassis. A side panel can be seen hanging from a delivery support on the left ready to be aligned with the chassis. After this the car enters an enclosed area where laser welding is performed (white doors in front of the chassis swing open).

(above) Workers go over the completed structure to smooth any imperfections and inspect the car prior to the doors being installed.


(above) Here the doors are guided into place by special alignment tools. This is the final process before the car leaves the production area and heads to the paint facility.


(above) In the past this production stage was characterized by dirt, solvents and the emission of paint particulates. Today paintshop activity is defined by "clean-room" technology, low-solvent finishes and efficient scrubbing of the paint mist with a water circulation system as well as intense water purification and recirculation.

Degreasing, pre-treatment, washing and drying phases are the initial stages of treatment. Then follows the electrolytic dip-priming.

All metal joints are then sealed along their seams and folds, thermoplastic sound deadening materials are inserted for noise damping. In addition to the paint finish and galvanization, the underbody seal protects against possible subsequent damage from stone chips and corrosion. After the filler coat and the pigmented coat, a clear finish is applied as the final protective layer. This coat alone is what gives the required glossy finish you see in the showroom.

All finishing work is done by robots. The atomized paint is transferred in an electrostatic field to the body, with low losses in the process, and adheres to the metal. After the paint has been applied, an additional internal precaution against corrosion is taken using the hot wax cavity flooding process patented by Volkswagen. This protective measure is used on all models.

Color changes on the line can occur in less than a minute, eliminating the need to paint a batch of vehicles in a single color and then a second batch in a second color, etc., etc. Vehicles can be painted individual colors one right after the next on the assembly line.


(above) After leaving the paint facility each vehicle is hand inspected for any flaws in the paint finish and sent to the final assembly area. In final assembly, the painted bodies are completed in accordance with customer orders. Here an Eismere Blue Eos has had the doors removed and is being prepped for the insertion of the dashboard and wiring harness module. The doors will reunite with the car later in the assembly process.


(above) The dashboard comes completely assembled as a single unit by an outside supplier. Each dashboard is unique to the given model depending on the market and customer order. The dash is inserted carefully via an overhead mechanism. This process requires three people. One to operate the machine, one to grab the wiring harnesses in the engine bay and one on the far side to guide the dash into the correct location and secure it.


(above) The marriage of the drivetrain and chassis. The complete driveline preassembled and tested elsewhere arrives via a robotic delivery system at just the right time to be installed into the particular chassis it is assigned to.


(above) Here a worker installs the front core support and headlamps.


(above) Later in the assembly process, the front and rear bumpers are installed under the watchful eye of a supplier representative that inspects each bumper to ensure the quality is up to par. Wheels are also installed at this point.


(above) Here is a complete folding hardtop roof assembly waiting to be installed on the vehicle. Webasto/Open Air Systems builds and paints the roof assembly at the supplier park next door to the factory. The roof consists of 470 individual parts with four hydraulic cylinder pairs. At the touch of a button the electric motor for driving the sliding glass roof and eight hydraulic cylinders are activated. The roof conversion occurs via a mechanism with a total of six four-link mechanisms, minimizing the number of drive components and system weight. The entire roof assembly weighs just 48 lbs.

The roof mechanism also has its own electronic control unit (ECU) that monitors more than 250 parameters in addition to the overall CAN-BUS (a local area diagnostic network in the car) system. Twelve contact-free Hall-type sensors monitor all roof system movements. Roof movements will only be approved by the control unit if the sensors report that it is safe to do so. In the case of a failure, a failsafe option allows limited continuation of the roof movements depending on the failed components. Up to 60 fault codes can be stored by the ECU to help in diagnostic issues.


(above) Here a roof assembly is lowered into place, centered and secured by four major bolts. The entire assembly could be removed and replaced if necessary.


(above) Interior components fall into place quickly as a seat is lowered into place.


(above) Final inspection and shipping prep take place at the end of the line.


(above) Each car is run on the test rollers and hooked up to diagnostics to ensure all systems check out and function properly.


(above) Finally, each car is driven around a short test track to ensure there are no immediate problems and no squeeks or rattles. The roof mechanism is also fully tested via the dignostics and through a number of physical cycles before the vehicle is signed off to be delivered.


Overall the Autoeruopa facility is an impressive place. The level of enthusiasm we found in everyone we spoke to at the factory is refreshing and a good indication of the pride going into the vehicles at this factory. The Eos is a big step for Autoeuropa and the Portugese people that work there and something they can be proud of.

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