You use your car every day. It’s a wondrous piece of machinery that carries you and your loved ones from place to place. It’s something that has become so commonplace in society that you might not have previously considered all of the work that it took for it to be made. Well, here’s a description of how your car was built, from the very beginning up until the point where it’s ready to hit the market.
Creating Pieces for the Body
For the first step in your car’s manufacturing process, large sheets of metal, often aluminum, are rolled out and stamped by robots to create pieces for the body of the car, like hoods, roofs, trunks, and frames. There are also stamp molds for smaller pieces like doors and mirrors.
Assembling the Body
Once all of the nearly five hundred pieces that are required to make the body of your car have been stamped out, the car is sent down an assembly line to be pieced and welded together. To ensure a strong, secure bind, manufacturers might use an impregnation machine. The use of an impregnation machine and impregnation resins can help to ensure that any pores along the welds are properly sealed to prevent corrosion from exposure to gasses and liquids. Once the body is fully assembled, it is sent down the conveyer belt to be painted.
Painting and Polishing
Before the car body can be painted, it needs to be primed. Priming the body can help to smooth and even out the surface before painting, and adds another layer of protection from corrosion and any harsh elements that your car might face. Once fully primed, the car is ready to be painted. It is sprayed with five layers of paint, totaling nearly 100 pounds. Robotic arms are used during this step to ensure that the car receives an even paint job. After your car has been fully painted and dried, it will be polished to buff out any scratches or inconsistencies and make it shine.
Adding Mechanical Elements
Once the body of your car has been built, painted, and polished, it’s time to begin adding all of the elements that live under the hood and work to power the car. First, the car is lifted and the engine is mounted into the hood from below. Next, the transmission–or gearbox–is added, followed by the drive shaft and the suspension of the car. This suspension is what connects the body of your car to the wheels and is connected to your steering to allow you to control the direction your car moves in. Once this is in place, the wheels and braking systems are installed, followed by the exhaust system and muffler. After these pieces are installed, the car is lowered and more components are added to the engine, like the air filter, the generator, the fuel filter, the battery, the engine cooling radiator, the electrical relay–or fuse box–and plenty of other pieces like tanks for your car’s fluids.
The Interior
While the body and engine of your car are being constructed, machines are also working on building pieces for the interior of your car. Lasers are used to cut out the patterns for the seats, steering wheel, and center console. These pieces are then sewn together and stuffed with custom-shaped foam inserted to build all of the furniture pieces and fabric or leather accents for the interior of your car. The interior pieces are then slowly added to the interior of your car, along with the electronic components like the infotainment system, the speakers, and all of your gauges. The last elements to be put in your car are the seats and the steering wheel, along with the airbags.
Filling in the Gaps
Once the interior of your car is fully assembled, it’s time to seal off the body by adding things like the front and back windshield, followed by the doors and windows. These pieces go on last to make it easier to put together the interior of the car.
Post-Assembly
After the assembly process has been completed for your car, it’s important that it is inspected thoroughly. It will be carefully looked over for any scratches or other possible defects that it might have sustained throughout the assembly process. Next, your car is put through different simulations to test its performance. First, it is run through a rain simulator to ensure that it is completely water-tight. Next, it is put on a simulator to test how well it drives on the road, ensuring that is able to both accelerate and brake correctly. Once your car passes these tests, it’s ready to hit the market so you can purchase it!
