Car news
Cameras key to clean lines
ining up panels and ensuring good fit and finish used to be a semi-manual job, accomplished by eye. Now Seat is using ‘photogrammetry’, or cameras, to measure placement to tenths of a millimetre across millions of data points. Seat says photogrammetry is a process pioneering new levels of efficiency in measurement on the production line. Sets of parts are randomly selected from the assembly line to be thoroughly checked during each production shift. AGVs (automated robots) transport these components to the measuring facilities. There the machines, equipped with cameras, begin the work to ensure that all vehicles leaving the production line have the correct dimensions almost wherever they can be measured. If any deviations are detected, these can then be quickly addressed. Pedro Vallejo, head of measurement technology and meisterbock at Seat, explained:
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“Photogrammetry is a non-contact optical measurement technology that enables us to capture millions of points of an object through photos, marking the depth and thickness of each space. “We’re the first manufacturer to roll out large scale, continuous non-contact, automated measurement. We’ve managed to ensure that a car coming off the line has the same level throughout the life of the series, like a perfect prototype.” The process involves taking between 200 and 300 photos per assembly, and 1000 of the entire body, measuring the equivalent of seven million points per assembly and up to 98 million of an entire chassis. The optical technology has saved up to 90 percent of the measuring time of the conventional process. It allows 9000 photos and up to 210 million points to be analysed each day. Head of internal parts measurement at Seat,
Paco Triguero, explained: “This has profoundly transformed the way we’ve been working for the last 20 or 30 years. We’ve trained workers in more highly qualified techniques, and exponentially increased the information we obtain so that the customer receives the best possible car.” This technique is currently being applied on the assembly line of the Seat Leon and the Cupra Formentor. “We’re storing all this data so that a machine learning algorithm can examine the frequency of any deviations,” says Pedro. “Now we’re able to locate them and react, but later on, a programme will act proactively. It will analyse how often deviations are repeated and make predictions to recalibrate the machine that produced the deviation.” Seat is a member of the Volkswagen Group and is the only company that designs, develops, manufactures, and markets cars in Spain.
Actually, it’s a SsangYong evotees of New Zealand’s favourite pickups might need to think again. In the UK, SsangYong’s Musso has been voted ‘Best Pickup’ in Diesel Car magazine’s Car of the Year 2021 Top 50 Awards for the third consecutive year. The go-anywhere SsangYong Musso has already been voted to have the ‘Best Payload’ by What Car? magazine, and ‘Best Value’ and ‘Best Individual Model’ by 4x4 magazine, this year alone. Commentators have been swayed by the Musso’s combination of build quality, space, refinement, comfort, excellent warranty, and value for money. Diesel Car’s journalist judging panel remarked: “The Musso is a highly capable pick-up, with a towing capacity of 3500kg and an impressive load bed.’’ They noted its low price in EX trim and its seven-year/150,000-mile warranty. “An accomplished chassis and 2.2-litre 178bhp
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Auto Channel Issue #37 July 2021
turbodiesel engine make it easy to drive, and it can return over 30mpg on a longer run. Clever features like rear cross traffic alerts also take some of the stress out of driving a pick-up in town, while three rear seats and a power socket in the load bed are handy too.” Kevin Griffin, managing director of SsangYong Motors UK, said: “We’re delighted to win the “Best Pick-Up” in Diesel Car magazine’s Car of the Year 2021 Top 50 Awards for three years running. Musso is the pick-up market’s best kept secret but things are about to change. It disrupts the pick-up market and rightly so — it’s a tough, strong, valuefor-money 4x4. Watch this space for the new,
even better Musso launching this summer.” Musso shares its body-on-frame construction with the new Rexton, which has also won multiple awards. SsangYong cars are manufactured in South Korea by SsangYong Motor, which is 75 percent owned by the Indian engineering conglomerate Mahindra & Mahindra.
