Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

- - Yer at whatever pace, 180 bikes a day means one bike every two and a half minutes off the end line. If the cycle time on a given j o b is five minutes, th at means to support production it will take two machines working one shift, or one machine working two sh ifts. The York plant has it solved both ways, depending on the nature of the part, the cost o f the machine th at do es a particular operation on it, how critical th at operation m ight be, and a half-dozen other fa ctors you can only guess at it if you're not into the problem you rself. As it works out, th e a sse m b ly line runs day shift only, while parts of Press , Brake and Shear or Machining run the clock around. Let's hit some highlights. The Yo rk plant has 60 stamping and draw presses, ranging from 60 tons to 1000 t o ns capacity. Gas tanks, oil tanks, instrument covers, fenders, various gussets and brackets are all made on th is press line. Brake discs and sprockets are blanked from steel plate, then finish-ground and drilled else where. Wheels are hand-laced a t York and taken up finger-tight, then clamped in a concen tric fix tu re to have the spoke nipples run up to a pre-se t torque with an air driver. Fine trueing is done at a tigh t station, tube and tire are in stalled on a sp ecially-adap ted tire m achine, and static/dynamic balance is done on a reworked au to mo tive-t y pe e lect ro nic balancer. Fr on t and r ear whee ls ar e run seemingly at random, assembled to their required brake disc and/or sprocket, th en loaded on to a converyor which carries them up into the rafters, letting them down again near Station 34 on the assembly line. The Milw aukee-matic (m entio n ed earlier) is a mind-blower of a machining station. Tape controlled, it does m u ltip le operations in sequence, even changing its own tools with a mechanical arm. At the t ime of the visit, it was running triple-clamps two a t a time in a rotating fixture. Everything the machine does is pre-programed on punched paper t ape, running in a computer-like console next to the machine table. Cost of such a gadget, (umm, clickety-click, ding!) a cooool half-million, give or take a few thou. The massive cast or forged frame parts, like ' the steering head, are core-drilled so the frame tubes slip-fit in them. Main advantage: the frame parts tend to act as their own jigs, so that a less-complex frame welding fixtu re is required. Fr ames are we lded up with powered wire-feed MIG machines in multiple bays . The welders work behind heavy yellow vin yl curtains that are supposed to mask the worst of the ultra-violet from the arc, preventing p--- -------. ; 1 1 1 1 1 1 HAS THE ANSWER 1 1 1 1:1 1~ 1u I .t I :e ' /G£~ St'ltmCt' I ~ ~g Jt/llS ltaG C 16 IS~l" IT'S t/ I c: 1 * llJl:DlblbCJ (Blb(!J($ I. ~ I IBI1I]UIBW 111]1]~ : ~ : TO 1 1 It~G * 1 1 . I Try it in your) I \'trcrnnie' tool! I II Consumers agree •••• : -, I "It really works" 1 I . I i HRL 'NC. 1 1 2600 E.Nutwood Ave. 1 •!'!.!.'!.'1fl!!.s~ lUi!. _" I - Scratch-built machining station hides steering head being drilled in box-l ike fixture. THOUSANDS OF USED & NEW PARTS AND ACCESSORIES ON SALE I flare burns I to th e ey es of curi o u s watchers . The York plant does all its own chrome plating on a 2.5 million dollar automatic p lating m achine. Parts are loaded on large hanging fixtures , some which hold la hundred pieces or more, and hung on the loading side . Transfered to the plating tank conveyor loop, they are alternately dunked, raised and dunked fr o m tank to tank in sequence around the complete lo op. Each tank has a di fferent solution in it. The part liS cleaned , plated with semi-bright nickel (electric current travels from the conveyor itsel f, which is conductive, through the hanger to each part), rinsed in several stages, bright-n ickel plated, rinsed again, finally chromed and rinsed again. At th e end, lateral transfer back to the dryin g loop , run through a drying oven, and off-load. Since no plating j o b can be any better than the preliminary surface finish, I Slip-jointed frame parts, though heavy , don't require a super-trick welding jig. there 's a whole sec tio n of the plant devoted to buffin g parts. Some of it is done on au tmat ics; o ther parts, due to their shape, h ave to be done by hand. Some of it is au tomati c first buff, hand touch-up. Count up the chro me good ies on a big Ha wg - it works out to a nice, thorny little prob lem for so me engin eer who had t o figure out how to do them all efficien tly . That paint line t he y dropped in th rough the . roof is an in tegrated, automated unit also. An ov erhead co nveyo r accep ts all H-D's painted parts to run them through the process. Each metal part gets a ch ro mic-acid etch and iron-phosphate so lution treatment. The result is a slightly "spongy" surfa ce for paint to ad here to . In priming and pain ting, each part is given a ne gative charge through its conductive hanger. In each paint booth · is a hydraulic column stroking up and down w ith a s pinning, positively-charged disc at its end. The pain t particles, spinning off t he d isc , re ceive a positive charge from it. The cloud of paint mist, so fine you can barely see it, envelops the part like a lover's arms. Result : an absolute min imum of overspray and wasted paint. Paint F orem an Fred Groendyk, on th is day , had 30 people in . his department, h us tli n g parts on and off conveyor, applying trim, touching u p, servic ing and monitoring work stations. People-count varies up or down as the line is sped up or slowed down to match production requirements. The painted parts, all sh iny in th eir clear ac ry lic fin al coat, get hung at ran do m on the overhead storage conveyor: a maroon Sportster tank he re , a bronze rear fe nder there, a gold Ele ctra-glide tank-hal f nex t. They 're carried up into th e rafters to jo in o ther co nv ey or lo o ps carryin g wheels and engines, up to a half-million pounds of sto red p ar ts , co ns tan tl y circulating around and down p ast the final assembl y line. Bec ause the p arts are lo aded at ran d o m, the part yo u mi gh t ne ed to co m plete a given motorcycle will be alo ng even tually, so y ou build a big e noug h " bank" of p arts between co nveyo r and assembly lin e to even ou t t he "ups an d downs " of random ch an ce , and the supply situ ation wo rk s out nicely . So far, we've go t te n t he m y ri ad pieces of th e Hog to th e p ay off p oin t th e p owered assem bly line. Nex t installment, we 'll see the pieces co me to gether into a unique b it o f "love it or leave it" Am ericana. • ~ SWIUI I MI!I!" I*"m., * Irr, 6PII " llPM JAN. 30, '76 MAKE CHECK P AYABL ~ _ :.a':.==",,,,!! A.N MAIL TO: PIIIOffict . . . . " ".CA.1I2l1I :W Expansion Chamber Cone Sets 20 Ga . steel rolled And seam spalwelded ready t o des ign your own chamber . 3 Pc . sets. SI2.00. 4 Pc . sets, S I4.00. 5 Pc . sets, SI6.00. Post~d. Quantity d iscounts "availab le . Send your d imensions to Alrco Sheet Metal. 15209 Grevlllea Ave. Dept. C. Lawndale. CA 90260. 213-675-5290. C ycle Centier ti; i§!!J HOd·~·K~~UIt.co 1300 East Ed inger Ave . Santa Ana, CA 92705 714-835·7821 31

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