The BMW Group has opened a brand new automated metal urgent facility on the firm’s Swindon (UK) plant. The brand new press will produce metal panels for the MINI plant in Oxford at twice the speed of the previous gear which it replaces, with the metal blanks and completed panels dealt with by a brand new fleet of Computerized Guided Automobiles (AGVs).
New automated metal urgent facility at Swindon plant
The usage of AGVs all through the method has streamlined logistics significantly, specifically with using an enormous AGV which may transport as much as six tonnes of fabric. This can be a technological first for the BMW Group and is will likely be rolled out in different press retailers across the firm’s international community of producing plant. In complete, 23 new AGVs have been commissioned within the new amenities, with extra deliberate over the subsequent few years.
The brand new press is made up of six particular person stations which may produce as much as 18 elements per minute—greater than twice the capability of the earlier press line. The time taken swap the urgent instruments is considerably diminished too, from at the least 30 minutes, to slightly over three minutes. The strain which the brand new press can apply is 2,500 tonnes.
The constructing has quite a few environmental options together with water harvesting from the roof to offer water to all non-drinking water provides. There’s additionally a system which makes use of the warmth from the press hydraulics to warmth the primary corridor. This together with smaller touches equivalent to LED lighting and the lengthy glass roof home windows operating down the middle of the constructing have a big affect, creating a light-weight shiny working setting, decreasing the reliance on synthetic gentle and contribute considerably to attaining vitality saving and sustainability targets.
The development of the brand new constructing began in June 2019, after the demolition and the clearing of ‘A’ Constructing on the Swindon website. Through the development of the 36m large, 210m lengthy, 25m excessive constructing, the group has managed the problem of the COVID-19 restrictions and an enforced four-week shutdown through the first lockdown.
The positioning at the moment produces for each BMW and MINI fashions and has a protracted historical past with the primary physique shells leaving the location in 1955.
