Dagenham diesels
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FORD'S E100m investment in its new 1600 diesel engine has made Dagenham one of the largest diesel engine plants in Europe.
Cargo's six and 6.2 litre diesel engines and Ford's latest 2.5 litre direct injection diesel are also produced on recently-introduced facilities. Together with existing petrol engines, the plant has a capacity to produce 350,000 units per year.
On the 1600 diesel line, all cylinder head machining installations are completely new, while almost 50 per cent of the machines used to produce the block have been rehabilitated and retooled. Most operations are completed on transfer lines, while robots are used for selected jobs.
To ensure the degree of dimensional accuracy required there is a much greater use of automatic guaging, took adjustment, component selection and assembly.
Computers are used widely and more than 112 visual display units are provided throughout the production facility.
All engines are subjected to hot testing for 12 minute computer-controlled cycles and eight per cent of production is selected at random for a more rigorous computerised dynamometer test lasting up to 20 minutes.