Here's a nice little video showing casting, machining, and assembly of Ferrari auto engines. That casting section of the plant looks to be the cleanest foundry operation I have ever seen. Anybody else ever seen such a clean foundry?
Do you think the presence of a camera doesn't affect peoples' actions?
jsw
Did you watch the video?
There is clean and there is cleaned. This is definitely *clean*
technicians from shell make engines for ferrari?
How about a blast from the past, ironwise? The Original 5th Wheel!
-- "Human nature itself is evermore an advocate for liberty. There is also in human nature a resentment of injury, and indignation against wrong. A love of truth and a veneration of virtue. These amiable passions, are the latent spark. If the people are capable of understanding, seeing and feeling the differences between true and false, right and wrong, virtue and vice, to what better principle can the friends of mankind apply than to the sense of this difference?" --John Adams
The foundries I have been around sort of looked like what you might imagine Hell would look like. And they have generally been populated by work crews......well.....guys you really wouldn't want to mess with. Dave
I had never seen that inovation before. Apparently not too sucessful in the market as it didn't become standard equipment in auto production. But interesting regardless. Dave
When I was very young there were no other kids around and the only place I was allowed outside the yard was the foundry next door, and then only if I stayed out of the way which I did. So by age 5 I knew how to screed and moisten green sand, tamp the cope and drag, add the sprue and vent, carve changes not on the pattern by hand, melt and pour aluminum and snag the casting.
jsw
This is not a put-up job for the video. Ferrari's casting and machining operations have been industry standards at least since the 1960s.
Back in the late '80s, one of my clients was Mandelli, the machine tool company that pioneered advanced machining centers (they used DEC minicomputers for CNCs). Ferrari was their showcase customer, not just because of the name recognition but also because Ferrari ran some of the most advanced flexible machining cells in the world. I watched hours of video of their operations then, including the foundry, and it was really impressive. At that point I'd spent over 12 years reporting on metalworking manufacturing and had visited at least 30 foundries around the US, Germany, and Japan, including Ford, GM, and Toyota. I never saw anything quite like the Ferrari operation. The pride of those workers was obvious. Old Enzo couldn't stand finishing second at anything.
I remember seeing this as a do-it-yourself project in, IIRC, Science and Mechanics in the late '50s Gerry :-)} London, Canada
So good to see you posting again.Ed!!
Weve a foundry near here, in an old victorian building, they do ali, bonze, and iron. Mostly for the restoration and steam repair folk. They keep their ali melts fluid all the time as its cheaper than letting them cool off and re heat. They are surviving ,just, because they speciallise in one offs etc.
Re the ferrai video, it shows the crankshafts in the forged? state, Or were they cast steel? Liquid nitrogen cooled valve inserts, and one man assembles each engine.
however, any running in? on the dynamometer test bed? to 7500 rpm? Note very short stroke to bore ratio. Only down side cam belt not chain, but the cam belt will have a lot less innertia. Plastic cam belts are the curse of modern engines. Ted
Hi, Ted. I don't think I ever knew what the cranks were made of, but I'd be surprised if a Ferrari crankshaft was not forged steel, at least back in the '80s.
I've never touched a Ferrari engine but my mechanic in town was a factory-trained Ferrari mechanic, and I was allowed to watch him work on the occassional Ferrari that showed up at his shop. Those engines are like jewels. One of my best memories of racing was watching (and hearing) Mike Gamino's Ferrari GTO at Watkins Glen, in...hmmm...it was '63 or '64. I think the latter.
Yeah. Well, there's always a tradeoff. Adjusting the bottom chain of two-stage cam chain drive on an early Jaguar XK was not a bad job, but it was a frequent one. That was before they were self-adjusting -- which helped, but it was not a cure.
All I know is that, that is a weird way to grind a crank. It is completely unsupported, might as well grind it vertically then. I'd like to know how they get round instead of egg shaped journals doing it that way. Maybe the wheel is feed controlled by a computer. On a conventional grinder with a dial indicator riding on the journal by three points without outside influence the grinding process actually gets more out of round.
SW
My friend in California has a '65 Dino. I got to drive with him from Fallbrook to San Diego with him in it to put it in the Auto Museum at Balboa Park. They had about a dozen there, one of them worth $12 mil. They had a lot of old photos and stuff one would have seen at a real race. It was all just gaga jaw dropping machinery.
Then, he sez, "How would you like to ride in an Enzo?"
Of course, I sez, "What's an Enzo?"
He smiled and said, "It's a car."
It wasn't.
It was a freaking rocket sled with wheels.
His Maserati GT 3500 is almost restored. I'll try to get some pics next time down there.
Here's the Dino ......... Comparing the Enzo and the Dino, the Dino is a sled.
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================ Sad story about the FBI and a recovered Ferrari they wrecked on a joy ride.
-- Unka George (George McDuffee) .............................. The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there. L. P. Hartley (1895-1972), British author. The Go-Between, Prologue (1953).
Years ago, I looked up an old friend and within the conversation I asked if he still had his Maserati and he replied that his kids ate it.
SW
Damn. I would look good driving that car. Dave
And to swear and smoke Lucky Strikes too? Joking, sort of. Most of the foundry crews I've seen were pretty rough. But that sounds like a really cool experience for a five year old.
With the destruction of the industrial base, kids now just don't have those kinds of opportunities for exploration. Worse yet, kids now don't even seem to ride bicycles and take any initiative for exploration.
I can't tell you the number of brick factories, rail yards, construction sites, storm drain pipe systems, BB gun fights, dirt trails, factory doors, etc. etc. that I used to ride to, for purposes of curiosity satiation and excitement, when I was a kid. Kids today seem to stay inside and play video games.
Glad you were out doing cool stuff. Dave
Damn, an F50. I saw a show where they wanted to test one, but could not get anyone to loan them one. Then the drummer (?) from Pink Floyd said they could use his IF they let him plug his book, which they did. It was a fantastic show, and all went without a hitch, no damage. Paddle shifter that computer synchronized the clutch, gears, and suspension to take every bit of jerk out of the shift. The guy who drove it would get out, and look like he was dancing with fire ants all over him just saying how much of a rush it was to drive. He looked like he needed to change his shorts, not from brown stuff but from white. He was one happy Englishman.
Not like the time black actor (?) or whoever it was wreck that one he was driving, hitting a Jersey rail. WTF were they thinking? I hope the guy was worth it, but he hasn't seemed to be much of an actor(?).
Ah, to sleep, perchance to dream ............ W. Shakespeare I'd look good in one.................
Steve
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