Part 36
Six engines of a combination gas-steam type, housed in this building, develop 36,000 combined horse-power. They are said to be the first gas-steam engines to be put to practical use. Another engine, using steam only, develops 2,000 horse-power, while several pumping engines increase the total horse-power of the plant to 45,000, probably the largest individual unit of any power-plant in the world, and said to be the only one of its kind in actual operation.
Some idea of the size of the engines is gained from the fact that the stroke is 72 inches, while the gas cylinders are 42 inches in diameter and the steam cylinders are 36 and 68 inches in diameter.
In producing the gas and steam for these engines only twenty-two tons of coal per hour are consumed, which speaks well for the efficiency of the engines. In addition to the steam, the daily consumption of producer gas for power purpose only is 28,512,000 cubic feet. Added to this figure for power gas, is another item of gas used in the factory for various purposes, which averages nearly 1,000,000 cubic feet per day, bringing the per diem consumption of gas by the company up to 29,512,000 cubic feet.
The main factory buildings are 900 feet long and 800 feet wide, four stories in height and of fire-proof construction. They are so designed that every part of the interior receives a full share of daylight.
The heating and ventilating of the factory building is accomplished in a modern, scientific manner. In the winter, warm washed air is forced through long ducts in the floor up into the room. In the summer, cool washed air is handled in the same way, thus providing a clean, healthful atmosphere the year around. By this system the air in the factory is completely changed five times per hour.
At the right as the visitor enters the factory, is seen the tool construction department. Here are employed approximately 1,000 expert tool makers, machinists and die sinkers. These men are engaged in making new machinery (designed in the company shops), tools, jigs, fixtures and other machine shop accessories, and repairing those in use.
Overhead are traveling cranes which have a capacity of forty tons each. These cranes facilitate the work of the tool construction department by carrying cumbersome parts of machinery to and from it for alterations and repairs.
Here the visitor is standing upon the roof of a great tunnel, in which are all the heating, water and steam pipes, and the power cables running from the power house to various parts of the shop. This tunnel is large enough to permit the easy passage of a touring car.
Standing in front of the factory office, the visitor is doubly impressed with the magnitude of the view before him. In one continuous room, containing approximately 700,000 square feet of floor space, there are, in round numbers, 8,000 machines in actual operation, representing an outlay of about $5,000,000. These machines use some 2,500 gallons of lubricating oils and 11,000 gallons of cutting fluids each day. For driving the many machines, about fifty miles of leather belting are used, giving the room the appearance of a dense forest.
The visitor who is familiar with machine shop practice will notice at once the peculiar location and setting of machinery in this shop. The machines of a class, or type, are not all located in a single group or unit. Each department contains all of the necessary machinery to complete every operation on each part or piece it produces. To illustrate, a rough forging or casting is started in a department at one point, and after passing through the machines doing the required operations, it leaves this department in a finished condition, ready to be assembled into the car.
Such a system necessitates the grouping together of many different kinds of machines, as well as including brazing furnaces, cyanide furnaces and other special units (most generally found in separate buildings). Chutes run from one machine to another, so that a workman can transport a part from his operation to the next one by gravity. The results of this transportation system are remarkable, making a big saving in trucking expense, loss of material and the absence of usual delays.
As the visitor passes down through the machine shop, he particularly notices the sanitary conditions of the plant. There is a department, enrolling about 500 men, whose duties are to keep the floors swept clean, the windows washed, in fact to keep the sanitary conditions surrounding the workmen as nearly perfect as possible. The floors of the entire plant are scrubbed at least once a week, with hot water and a strong solution of alkali, which removes the grease. Another department of about twenty-five men does nothing but paint the walls and ceilings of the factory, keeping everything fresh and clean.
To facilitate the inter-departmental transportation of materials in the factory, there is an overhead monorail system, comprising over 1-1/2 miles of I-beam track. On this system are nine monorail cars, each car having two 2-ton hoists, by means of which great boxes and trays of material can be picked up and carried overhead from point to point in the shop.
Near the pay office is the main first-aid department. Here the chief surgeon has on his staff eight regular doctors and several first-aid nurses. The surgical equipment, which includes an X-ray machine, pulmotor, operating table and electrical appliances, as well as improved surgical instruments, enables the surgeon to cope with any accident.
The factory service office houses a department which is responsible for the well-being of factory employees. Of the 200 men in the division the majority are employed in the capacities of watchmen, to take care of the many entrances and exits of the plant and also to inspect the fire-fighting equipment which is distributed over the entire plant.
This fire-fighting equipment is being continually added to as the plant expands and now embraces more than a mile and a half of large hose, 10,000 feet of smaller hose, and 2,900 feet of hose attached to chemical tanks. There are 1,421 three-gallon chemical extinguishers and fifty-eight 40-gallon chemical tanks, mounted on wheels. Surrounding the plant are twenty-seven water hydrants equipped to handle two and three lines of hose, while inside the plant are eight hose-houses fully equipped. Pyrenes to the number of 175 are distributed about the departments for combatting electrical fires.
A new alarm system, said to be the most modern in the country, is being installed throughout the factory. Back of all other preparation is the sprinkler system, composed of water pipes hung next to the ceiling in all buildings and so designed that there is a sprinkler head every ten feet. Should the temperature in a room, for any reason, reach 160 degrees, the sprinkler heads in the immediate vicinity will open automatically, spraying out water which is piped from two tanks having a combined capacity of 600,000 gallons.
In addition to its other duties the factory service department has charge of the lost and found articles. Since this work was included, almost every sort of personal property, from key-rings to motor-cycles has been found and restored to the rightful owners.
Proceeding from the factory service office, the visitor finds himself in the main crane-way, devoted exclusively to the storage of parts in the rough, or semi-finished condition. This crane-way contains over 67,000 square feet of floor space. Overhead are two 5-ton electric cranes, so arranged that they can unload material from railway cars at one end of the crane-way and deposit it in a position to be picked up by the monorail cars, or placed in bins or barrels for storage. An interesting item in regard to these cranes is that the load can be moved in three directions at one time, this being accomplished by means of the small car hoist. While the crane proper is moving through the crane-way, this car travels across the crane, and at the same time raises or lowers whatever may be suspended from it.
Passing by the crane-way one comes to the rear axle unit assembly. The manufacturing policy of the company is to make unit assemblies in different departments and deliver them to the final assembly.
In the unit assembly departments are received the finished parts from the machine shop. These parts are assembled on progressive traveling tracks. By this system each assembler, or operator, performs one operation only, and repeats this operation on every unit passing through the department. As a result, every operator soon becomes a specialist, and specialization is the fundamental principle of the entire organization.
The economic results from this system have been wonderful, as will be shown in some of the departments yet to be described. It saves floor space, and eliminates congestion due to trucking, as large quantities of material are piled along each side of the conveyor, and the unit in process of assembling is moved to the stock, rather than each individual piece of the assembly being distributed at different places.
After the rear axle has been completely assembled, it is immersed in a tank containing enamel, and is hung on a special trolley which runs by gravity along an I-beam track. This trolley carries the axle to an elevator, which lifts it to a conveyor baking oven, located in a section of the roof. The axles are continually moving through this oven, and at the expiration of about forty-five minutes emerge from the far end completely baked. They are automatically dropped onto another elevator which lowers them to the point near where they are used in the final assembly. All material and unit assemblies move in one direction--that is, toward the final assembly.
Beyond the rear axle section is the department that makes the magnets for the magneto, and also that in which the transmission is assembled on a conveyor track, ending in an automatic elevator which transports the completed transmission to the motor assembly line.
In the rear of the transmission department is the motor assembly. This assembly begins at the point where the cylinder machine shop ends, so that the movement of the cylinder from the time it arrives in the machine shop until it goes into the finished motor, is continuous. In the machining of the cylinder castings, and the operation of assembling the motor, close inspection of the work is noticeable. By the use of the assembling line, better inspection is possible, than where one or two men assemble the entire motor. In addition to the inspection in the assembly, there are three points of trial, or working or testing, which show up any defects in the motor.
The final operation in the motor assembly line is the block test, where the motor is inspected and tested before being assembled into the chassis. On the block test, the motor is driven by an electric motor for the final O. K. and tryout before being installed in this chassis.
At the end of this testing period, if no defect has developed, the motor is approved, placed upon a special truck and wheeled to the final assembling line.
The motor department just described furnishes an interesting illustration of the economy of the moving assembling system. Before the present system was installed about 1,100 employees were required in this department, working a nine-hour day to build 1,000 motors. Today, as a direct result of the new methods of assembling, and the efficiency gained through the profit-sharing with employees, about 1,000 men are assembling more than 2,000 motors in an eight-hour day.
The assembling of the front axle, dash and radiator are fully as interesting as the unit just described, but space will not permit a detailed explanation of them.
Perhaps the most interesting department in the whole factory, to the visitor, is the final assembly. In this division, all the assembled units meet the assembly conveyor at the point where they are needed. At the start of the track a front axle unit, a rear axle unit and a frame unit are assembled. This assembly is then started in motion by means of a chain conveyor, and as it moves down the room at a constant speed of eight feet per minute, each man adds one part to the growing chassis or does one operation, which is assigned to him, so that when the chassis reaches the end of the line, it is ready to run on its own power.
In following the final assembly line from the point where the chain conveyor engages the frame and axles, the visitor is impressed with the dispatch with which every movement is executed. The gasoline tank, for example, comes down from the fourth floor on a conveyor outside of the building, and drops through a chute onto a bridge over the assembly line. On this bridge is located a gasoline pump, from which each tank receives one gallon of gasoline before it is installed in the car.
After the gasoline tank is assembled, a number of small units are added, such as the hand brake control lever, gasoline feed pipe, and fender irons, until the point is reached at which the motor is placed in the frame.
Ordinarily the setting of a motor in the frame is a long operation, but in this assembly the motor is elevated by a hoist, and lowered into place while the chassis is moving along the conveyor track. From this point, other small parts are added, and bolts tightened, until the growing chassis reaches the bridge on which the dash unit is deposited by a chute from the second floor, where it is assembled. The dash unit includes the dash, complete steering gear, coil, horn, and all wiring ready to be attached to the motor, so that its installation is rapid.
Further along, such parts as the exhaust pipe, muffler, and side pans for the motor are quickly fastened in place, and the wheels are brought into the assembly.
There will be noticed the vertical chutes, extending through the ceiling. Down through these, from the third floor, come the wheels, with the tires mounted and inflated to the proper pressure. From this point the chassis moves under the bridge upon which are stored the radiators, which have been delivered by a belt conveyor.
At the end of the assembly line, the rear wheels on the finished chassis drop into a set of revolving grooved wheels, sunk into the concrete floor, and driven by an overhead motor. Two ends are accomplished by this operation. First, when the wheels of the car revolve with the grooved wheels, this motion is transmitted to the differential, through the drive shaft to the motor, limbering up all these parts. The second is that while the parts are being limbered up, the switch is turned on and the motor started.
At the end of the line the complete chassis is driven out into the yard under its own power. Guided by practiced hands it moves swiftly out into the yard, turns sharply and enters the final inspection line. A corps of inspectors at this point takes charge of the chassis, and the responsibility for each part is assigned to some one man.
From the final testing line the chassis is driven to the body chutes, which extend into the factory yard from the third floor of the new six-story building, and are so constructed that the chassis may be driven under them. The bodies are let down the chutes on belt conveyors, picked up by small derricks and swung over onto the chassis. The bodies are at this time placed on the chassis merely as a means of a rapid transportation to the freight cars, for in ordinary transportation the bodies are packed in the cars separate from the chassis.
In the rear of the main plant are two six-story buildings each 60 feet wide by 845 feet long, built parallel to each other and connected by a crane-way 40 feet wide the full length and height of the buildings.
The boiler house, which furnishes the steam for heating the entire plant, is located in the rear of these buildings. The method of heating is worthy of particular interest, as the air is forced over coils of steam pipes located in pent houses on the roofs, and from this point is driven down into the various rooms through the hollow columns which support the floors. In the summer, cool washed air is forced down through these same columns, maintaining a normal, even temperature, compatible with the state of the weather.
Various unit assemblies, small machine departments, and store rooms are located here in addition to all the body work.
Practically the entire first floors are used as a receiving department, where all the material consigned to the company is checked and inspected. Railway tracks run the full length of both crane-ways, facilitating the unloading and loading of supplies and parts.
The body department occupies the greatest amount of space, requiring, with the upholstering department, most of the three upper floors. In addition to this work the construction of tops, curtains and radiators is carried on, and a large space is used for the storage of equipment and parts, such as lamps, horns, tires, etc. A part of the second floor is devoted to the storage and the shipping of parts to branches and agents.
Having seen the body placed upon the chassis, the visitor passes along toward the north. In succession are the chutes on which the crates of fenders are sent down from the fourth floor of the main factory building to the shipping platform. Here is also a chain elevator, which raises the wheels out of the freight cars to a runaway on which they travel by gravity to the third floor of the main factory. With this device it is possible for three or four men to unload about 6,000 wheels each day.
One passes the loading docks, where crews of six to eight men each, working as a unit, remove the bodies and wheels from the chassis, and load them into freight cars. So proficient are these loaders that a freight car is loaded in twenty minutes. Approximately 150 loaded freight cars are sent out every day. Besides these factory shipments there are more than 300 loaded freight cars in transit each day from branch factories.
The bodies are shipped separate from the chassis, being stood on end in one-half of the car and protected from dust by coverings.
The chassis are put in the other end of the car, the first one being carried in, minus the wheels, and placed in a diagonal position. Brackets of cast iron, for holding the axle to the floor, are made in the foundry. The front axle rests on the floor, and the rear axle rests against the opposite wall near the top of the car. A block, with a hole which just fits the axle, holds it against the wall.
The next chassis is brought in and placed with its front axle opposite the first one. In this way the chassis alternate until the car is full. The space in the center of the car contains the fenders, and other removable parts of the equipment.
Just beyond the loading docks is the foundry.
The foundry is one of the most interesting divisions of the entire plant, and ranks, perhaps, as one of the most unique in the country, as far as practice and equipment are concerned. As a general rule, foundry practice has not shown the changes in an increase of production that machine departments have, but in this foundry, due to standardization of parts and specialization on the one car, it has been possible to devise and install the unique equipment now used, which brings this department down to the plane of expense and up in the labor-saving efficiency prevailing throughout the entire plant.
This department works twenty-four hours a day, in three shifts of eight hours each; iron is being melted and poured continuously during the day and first night shifts. An average of over 400 tons of iron is poured daily, and 426 tons of gray iron have been poured in a single day. This tonnage is especially interesting, as it is produced on a floor space of only 36,324 square feet.
All this iron is poured on overhead power-driven mold carriers, which travel about twelve feet per minute. These mold carriers have suspended from them pendulum-like arms, on the lower end of which is a shelf. The molders who make the molds for the castings are stationed alongside of these conveyors; the molding sand with which they fill the flasks is stored overhead in a hopper, the gate of which discharges directly onto the molding machine. There are two molders for each part, one making the “drag,” or lower part of the mold, the other making the “cope,” or the upper half. When these two halves of the mold are finished they are put together, or “closed” on the shelf of the conveyor, which carries the finished mold to the man who pours the molten metal. The molten metal is brought to this man’s station by means of large ladles, suspended on a trolley on an I-beam track, running from the cupola through the entire length of the foundry. This does away with the necessity of carrying the ladle of iron a long distance, thus saving much time and lessening the liability to accidents.
While the mold is being poured it is in constant motion, and continues so from the pouring station to the end of the conveyor, where the casting is shaken out of the sand. The casting is thrown to one side to cool, the flasks are hung upon hooks on the arm of the conveyor, to be returned to the molder, and the sand drops through a grating in the floor onto a belt conveyor; on this conveyor it is dropped on an elevator, raised overhead and “cut,” or mixed with new sand, and passed on to another conveyor, which deposits it in the hoppers above referred to, ready for the molder’s use. In all this journey the sand is never shoveled.
In casting cylinders, on account of their size and the care needed in setting the cores, a different style conveyor is used. The molder, instead of putting the mold on a pendulum conveyor, places it upon a track, where it is moved by means of a chain. During this travel the various cores are set, and the molds closed, moving to the point where the men with large ladles pour the mold. From this point it is transferred to another track. As it travels down this track, the casting is given an opportunity to “set,” or cool. At the end of this line it is shaken out over a grating, and the sand handled in the same manner as on the smaller conveyors.
As soon as the castings have cooled sufficiently they are put into great horizontal cylinders, called tumblers. Small metal stars are placed in these tumblers with the castings, and when the tumbler is full it is started revolving. This shakes all the sand from the castings and they come out clean and bright. This process continues for some time, depending on the size of the castings. Near the tumblers are the grinding wheels, upon which are ground off the rough edges and the castings put into shape for the machine shop. They are sorted, inspected and counted before removing from the foundry.