Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 78, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 December 1916 — HAD A FINE TIME, INDEED [ARTICLE]

HAD A FINE TIME, INDEED

Dr. Hansson Tells of His Visit to Big Willys-Overland Plant. Dr. J. -Hansson and son, WillysOverland dealers in this city, who were two of the 5,000 dealers visiting the great Toledo plant in connection with the immense convention, recount their experiences in this entertaning letter to the editor: Some action! Nothing was ever so impressive as our tour of the great plant that turns out Willys-Overland cars. Our Pullmans all parked In the company yards. There was room enough, for there are seven and three-quarter miles of track Within the plant. Each man got a card containing a picture of Mr. Willys and an autographed message of welcome from him. Next thing we knew we were lined upon the steps of the stunning new administration building getting photographed. Elevators shot us to. the company’s own restaurant on the sixth floor. There we had a corking breakfast. At each plate was a copy of the live new Willys-Over-land house organ “The Starter.” ’lt mapped our day’s program. Then started our tour of the plant. Our guides were carefully picked men. They knew the plant from end to end, and the parties were small so that each member of the party could have his questions answered. Nobody ought to try to sell Willys-Overland product without knowing this plant. You can’t grip the immensity of the proposition till you do. Tt, is no piker business. Twenty-five million dollars are tied up in land, buildings and machinery, not to say a word about the stock of parts and raw material. From the roof of the wonderful administration building, which stands out. like a state capital, you get a great panorama of the plant. Yon can then readily believe that it occupies 103 acres, with 4,486,680 square feet of floor space in, daily use and production capacity of 1,000 cars per day. You can appreciate the growth from 250 employes in 1908 to 17.300 in 1916. One thousand persons, more than the entire manufacturing force of many a company, work in the administration building alone. This structure, 375 feet long, has every facility for rapid' work, including dictaphones, its own telegraph and telephone system and a mail handling department that does about everything but write the letters. Three hundred eighy-eight persons can be fed in the restaurant at one time. But this is nothing to what hits when you- cross into the shops. Tt is a whirl of action, yet all is system. Parts by the Untold thousands are here, with a value into the millions of dollars. There are linos of motors. We never saw so many crank shafts together. Our guide said 6,ooo—we’d have believed 60,000. _ There is stock in bins, stock in yards, stock along the walls, con--tiecting rods, frames, fenders, mudguards, hoods, rims, springs, axles, torsion tubes, transmission gear shafts, brake parts, steering rods, pedals—it is an unending procession. Every thirty days sees an average of 1,000 tons of steel dome in. It is handled by a magnetic crane that, enables two men to do a work that formerly required thirty. There are amazing machines. The toggle press, for example, held us all. This monster, with its pressure of 1,000 tons, shapes cold steel like cardboard. A piece of metal fed to it comes out as a side frame. It can make 2,000 of these in an eight-hour day. Other mighty machines stamp out radiator shells, fenders, cowl dashes and doors. You take off your hat to the drop forging machines. Down conies the hammer and the fiery piece of iron is beaten into shape. The complete drop forging of the front, axle can be accomplished with one heat. Every kind of part requiring strength was drop-forged white we looked on, fxles, crank ‘Jffafts, brake assembly rods, brake and control rods, spring shackles, gear blanks and brake rod sectors. We saw the company’s accurate system of die making. It calls for a' special workman on each detail. One works on the shaper, another on the planer and a third on die sinking. The multiple spindle drill in one operation drills all the holes in the front axle. This is a guarantee that each will be in right relation to the other. It was hard to drag us away from the automatic turret lathe that surfaces and finishes fly wheels. It works as though somewhere within its metal vitals a brain was concealed. The workman has only to put on the rough fly wheel, adjust the first set of tools, push the lever and let the machine do the rest. The cast irolj is peeled off as readily as wax. Sometimes four or five operations are performed at once. When one set of cuttings is the machine stops automatically, and the next set of tools comes automatically into place.

Twenty operations are performed in fourteen minutes;' twenty-six pounds of metal are removed from the wheel. One man can watch three of these machines. The vertical cutter of gears on fly wheels almost matches the turret lathe in interest. Moving up and down, the cutter at the sarqe time slowly revolves, the flv wheel turning in the opposite direction. By the time a complete revolution of the fly wheel has been accomplished all the gear? are cut. We all fell for the aluminum foundry and for the machines that finish the aluminum parts. The multiple spindle drill bores eighty-one holes in the crank case in one operation. This is proof of the superiority of machining processes, for the holes'must be in the right relation to each other. Another machine smooths the surfaces of the crank cases, finishing seven in nine minutes. Diamonds, real diamonds, are consumed with apparently reckless indifference in the wet grind room. Placed in small tools they are used to true the emery wheels on which are ground the bearing surfaces of the crank shafts. They are bought in $15,000 lots. We looked on while whole forests of lumber were being turned into bodies in the wood work department. This lumber comes ip by carloads. As 214 feet of wood is required on a small touring car, we could readily see why so much was required. You make this round and you can understand this company’s immense consumption of material!IS,ooo,ooft pounds of solder annually, 2,500,000 pounds of tin and lead for smoldering, 10,000,000 pounds of brass and copper, 12,000,000.: feet of steel tubing and 1 25,000 tons of steel. But what impressed us more than all was the department in which materials are tested. They have to know a thing is right before it goes; into a Willys-Qverland car. That’s how they Safe-guard the public.

Test s in the physical aml cherti ieal laboratories are made in two ■ways. Completed steel' uarts are subjected to terrific tests. Axles are twisted like rolls of taffy candy. Small bits of steel, six inches lona/ cut from completed axles, are attached at both ends and literally pulled apart: The registering ma'Chine shows ?Oft.nfin pounds to the square inch necessary to accomplish this, whereas a resistance up to 125,000 pounds would he proof of ample tensile strength. Springs are tried for their resistance. Steel articles are also put through botlf heat and chemical tests, Tim former determines the amount of carbon, an important factor; the other determines the chemical composition of the steel. Naturally every operation in all the plants tends finally toward the assembly conveyor tracks. There are four of them, each f>4 5 feet long. We followed the whole operation. We began at one end where the frames and rear systems are put in place. Bv the time the other end of the conveyor is reached the frame has grown into the finished car. From overhead parts are lowered by.chains. Along the way men are attaching the parts. The frame is not in motion all the time, but can he instantly connected with the links of an endless chain and sent on its way whenever desired. Top quality of workmanship is assured by, having each man do Work on which he is an expert, if it be only to tighten a bolt. Lines of motors, already tested, wait on both sides of the conveyor. These are put into place, cantilever Springs are put on. steering mechanism and lighting and starting systems are adjusted. Gradually the car takes form. Instead of painting the chassis with a brush, a sprayer is used. It does the work more rapidly, -more uniformly and at a lower cost. The tracks of the assembly lead directly through ovens in which the paint is baked. Fenders and running boards come into their places. Wheels with the tires on are brought along on a runway. First comes a front wheel, then a rear wheel. You ought to see them put on the. tires. It Is lightning. By a special device, invented by one of the men in the department, the tire can be put on a wheel in three seconds. From overhead bodies are dropped down cn to the chassis and soon made fast. The car is now ready for its!

tests. Rapidly revolving wheels in the floor engage the wheels of the car, and send them at high speed to make sure that they are operating freely. This is not a test under the power of the car. Gasoline and water are then put into the car. ft is pushed off the track into another room, till its wheels are in contact with wheels ill the floor. With the use of the self starter, the machine gets its first chance to prove the success of its construction. It surprised us the way the motors started. They were off with a rush. There was no hitch or delay. All the work had been done right. In a few minutes the motor was working apparently almost as smoothly as if it had been a year on the road. We saw how the cars were shipped. The export department has a big feature in this line. The finished car undergoes preparation by having its wheels taken off and fastened on the under side of the frame which forms the top covering for the car. The top is covered with tar paper as a protection against the elements, and all is securely boxed. Along comes a big crane running in an overhead groove a quarter of a mile long. The operator sits in a small cab not unlike that of a railroad engineer. Chains grab the box containing the car, and within forty-second have carried it outside the building and placed it on Ui£L_flat freight car. It is processes like these, all that we have described, that explain why every car in the Willys-Overland line is what it is at so low a cost. Making so many is the answer, making them to go all over the world and having profited by the experiences of users everywhere Quantity production, immense and costly machines, skilled designing, careful inspection, accurate tests of material, efficient factory methods, rapid assembly and advanced methods of handling, all these we saw; all these tell why the Willys-Over-land company lives up to its ideals of a car for every need or taste, price, class and service right. We saw the line. It is quality from the lowest priced to the headliner. It will be the marvel of the automobile shows. This sightseeing tour Is only one angle of this convention. Tonight we will hear policy defined by the various officials. The two days’ program includes a rollicking beefsteak dinner, a more formal banquet, a minstrel show, a concert by the famous Overland band and a concert by the glee club. Finally there will he a speech by the moving genius of it all, Mr. Will vs himself. You will agree with me that this is some project to have been put over all within one plant arid by the people of the organization.—j. HANSSOX.