Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/872564
VOL. 54 ISSUE 36 SEPTEMBER 12, 2017 P101 before commencing customer manufacture. Pretty strict, huh?! When first opened, Factory 4 saw assembly of complete bikes using engines shipped from Britain, but both engines and frames for certain bikes, especially all twin-cylinder models, are now made in Thailand, with the assembly line switched to Factory 5. The paint shop includes both pow- der coating and wet paint processes, depending on the model, and in the case of fuel tanks, 30 percent of these are also coach-lined by hand, which entailed two of the Hinckley craftsmen, expert in this, spending months in Thailand teach- ing their four Thai counterparts how to do this. The paint shop has 28 spray booths with an amazing through-put of up to 3000 items a day batched by color and component, and this also includes clear-coating over decals and badges. The degree of organization needed to run this efficiently is simply mind-blowing. Consider that there are no less than 42 different designs and colors of side panel alone for the Bonneville family of twins, and you get an idea of the scale of complexity entailed. and the two 335-foot-long assembly lines also includes the three massive million-pound foundries made by Muller Weingarten in Germany, in which all crankcases, covers and some rear subframes for all Triumph models are made, even those man- ufactured in the UK. Add in another $1.2 million for each set of dies per crankcase design, then count the array lined up in Factory 5 and discover there are 26 in all. You do the math—and remember this is an extremely well-run privately owned company which has zero debt and no outside borrowings, financed entirely out of John Bloor's own pocket. Which posted a profit last year of $19.7 million in supplying an array of acclaimed new models to the marketplace, some of which are sold out for months ahead (Thruxton, Bobber, etc.). It's hard not to be impressed, isn't it? QC in the foundry is, once again, the first unit in each shift, then a random one in 10 subsequently, entailing both x-raying the parts for cracks, as well as a pressure test. But as the new generation of engines has come online with internal oil and water galleries for appearance sake, so it's become ALL THE STAFF IN THE PAINT SHOP'S L ARGE QUALIT Y CONTROL SECTION ARE FEMALE, ON THE GROUNDS THEY HAVE THE BEST EYE FOR SPOTTING DEFECTS IN PAINTING! All the staff in the paint shop's large QC section are female, on the grounds they have the best eye for spotting defects in painting! Also in Factory 4 is the injection-molding opera- tion for bodywork, luggage, etc. Some idea of the massive investment that John Bloor has brought to the table for Triumph comes from seeing the array of no less than 262 injection molding tools, costing $48,000 each, sitting waiting to be used—that's indeed $12.3 million of hardware just there. Add in the four massive Demag Sumitomo machines these are used in, and there's little change out of $18 million. But that's nothing compared to the investment in Factory 5, the largest and newest of Triumph's Thai plants, which besides the stores more complex to check these. Triumph Thailand is linked by computer to the foundry company in Germany to resolve any problems that do arise. This is done in the low humidity CMM inspection room at 72°F ambient, where, in addition, all new parts from an outside supplier are checked. All critical components are digitally checked to within a 10 microns tolerance, and for every new com- ponent manufactured the first 50 units are 100 percent checked for QC, before switching to one in 10 thereafter. Machining the crankcase and cylinder head castings (the latter are sourced from an outside supplier) is done on an array of 40 CNC machines representing another $15 million of investment, and