From raw steel to a new car in 19 hours flat

For kids: Part 2 of the Monitor's visit to a Chrysler factory to see how flat steel is transformed into an automobile.

By Steven Ellis | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

from the June 26, 2007 edition

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Belvidere, Ill. - We continue our trip to the Chrysler Group's Belvidere Assembly Plant, where we follow the making of a Dodge Caliber along roughly 11 miles of assembly line. It takes about 19 hours to turn steel into a car. On June 19, we explored an area of the plant called "stamping," where car parts are cut out of steel. Today we start with a visit to the next stop on the assembly line, the tool and die shop, where some metal car parts are molded.

The tool and die shop is divided into three areas, each containing machines that produce car parts of varying sizes – small, medium, and large.

Steve Youngblood is overseeing a team of workers operating a two-story-tall machine that produces the Caliber's medium-size body parts.

"We can produce about 400 parts an hour," he says, shouting over the loud noise and pointing to the equipment behind him.

Why are the machines so large? Try to bend a piece of steel with your bare hands, and you'll understand why, suggests one worker.

In the area where large parts, such as the sides of cars, are molded, workers run gloved hands over newly pressed metal and buff out any "high spots" or bumps they come across, says Gary Hyser, a team leader in the section.

Then the "sides" are loaded onto a yellow storage rack. But this isn't just any storage rack. Stand back, because after 18 or so parts are placed on it, the fully automated device beeps and rolls off to another portion of the plant – guided completely by lasers.

Other car parts take a ride on the "headless horsemen," trains of computer-guided carts that transfer supplies between workstations and storage areas.

But the real "fireworks" don't start until you reach the welding shop, where armies of robots – some taller than basketball hoops – fasten each car's steel parts together.

Sparks fly in every direction as 4,500 to 4,800 welds are made on an automobile, depending on the model.

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Make Mine Blue: Robots apply one of eight colors of paint to an automobile. Then the paint is dried, below. The process takes about 3-1/2 hours. Mary Knox Merrill – staff Audio slideshow: How a car is made