Momentum V107

[Coss]

Elio Motors Momentum v107

Today, as a part of our look at our manufacturing and launch plan, we will look at what will happen to a vehicle when it leaves the raw stamping phase, which means the vehicle’s body framing is complete and ready to be painted. Click here to read more!





*MSRP excludes destination/delivery charges, taxes, title, registration, and options/installation.

Certain statements in this email including, but not limited to, statements related to anticipated commencement of commercial production, targeted pricing and performance goals, and statements that otherwise relate to future periods are forward-looking statements. These statements involve risks and uncertainties, which are described in more detail in the Company’s periodic reports filed with the SEC, specifically the most recent reports which identify important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are made and based on information available to the Company on the date of this email. Elio Motors assumes no obligation to update the information in this email.

 

[Coss]

Part 2
The Elio Team posted: " For most of us, the color of our vehicles is quite important. Some of us want to blend in with the crowd and select one of the more common colors, while others want to stand out and add some pigment to the roadways. For buyers, much time can be spent con"


New post on Elio Motors

The Next Step Forward
by The Elio Team

[Broken External Image]

For most of us, the color of our vehicles is quite important. Some of us want to blend in with the crowd and select one of the more common colors, while others want to stand out and add some pigment to the roadways. For buyers, much time can be spent contemplating the right color, but once the decision is made, the process is complete. For manufacturers, however, the process begins long before the vehicle is even transferred to a paint booth. The process of prepping a vehicle to be painted requires an extensive expertise in both chemistry and physics as well as engineering applications in the Mechanical, Electrical, and Computer fields.

Today, as a part of our look at our manufacturing and launch plan, we will look at what will happen to a vehicle when it leaves the raw stamping phase, which means the vehicle’s body framing is complete and ready to be painted (body in white.) At this point, our objective is to turn the welded raw steel of the body to a vehicle that is corrosion resistant and ready for the application of automotive paint. This part of the vehicle's journey is the Frame Cleaning and Coatings phase. As we have mentioned, the vehicles will run along an automated conveyance system. Between the body in white phase and the Frame Cleaning and Coatings phase, the vehicle will enter an overhead conveyance mechanism.

[Broken External Image]

This process will take place in the pre-paint section of Building B and will occupy approximately 107,000 square feet of the building. The Frame Cleaning and Coatings phase has several key objectives; clean, prep, apply and bake the material into the vehicle prior to the painting process.

Here are the 11 steps we take before your Elio is ready to be painted:

1. The vehicle is dipped in an alkaline cleaning bath to remove any grease, dirt, or oils from the steel. The vehicle is submerged in a 77-foot-long tank, containing 21,000 gallons, for 120 seconds at 180 degrees.

2. We again dip the vehicle into an alkaline bath, though this tank is 85-foot long. This ensures that the vehicle is absolved of any remaining residues.

3. We give the vehicle a shower with 120-degree water for 60 seconds.

4. Now, the vehicle is acid cleaned for further cleaning and to put a light etch in the surface to help final paint adherence.

5. This stage will be repeated at specific intervals through the rest of the process. The vehicle is water rinsed for 60 seconds in a 93-foot-long tank with 14,000 gallons at room temperature.

6. We will again clean the vehicle in a 21,000-gallon alkaline tank, this time for 120 seconds at 180 degrees.

7. A room temperature water rinse takes place for 60 seconds in a 65-foot-long tank.

8. Now, a reverse osmosis water rinse takes place for 60 seconds.

9. The vehicle is dipped into a 76-foot-long, 21,000-gallon tank for 120 seconds in an Aquence Coating system, which is provided by Henkel (one of our blue-chip suppliers.) This is the material that provides corrosion resistance and adherence.

10. We rinse the vehicle in room temperature water for 60 seconds in a 13,000-gallon tank.

11. In the same sized tank as step 10, we give the vehicle its final rinse in 150-degree water.

The vehicle is then transferred into a natural gas heated oven. The vehicle sits in the 50-foot-wide, 332-foot-long, and 12-foot-high oven for 40 minutes. Then, the vehicle is automatically transferred from the overhead conveyor to a skid conveyor and ready to move along to the painting phase.


As you can see, there’s more that goes into your vehicle’s color than meets the eye. The steps above are a deeply condensed version of years and years of experience and knowledge from the Elio engineering, launch, and manufacturing teams as well as our supplier partners.

The next step in our journey through the plant will take a look at the painting process.

The Elio Team | May 24, 2017 at 6:51 pm |

 

[RUCRAYZE]

Can someone please explain.
Many posts including folks who worked on production lines, had calculations for the manufacturing process, and how many (seemed very few to me)
minutes it took to turn out units.
With this blog I learned
1st bath 120 sec.
2nd bath longer vat (actual time not given (guess same 120 sec)
shower. 60 sec
rinse 60. sec
reverse osmosis. 60 sec
dipped. 120 sec
rinse. 60 sec
another rinse (actual time not given) 60sec
another rinse 60 sec
40 minutes heated.
O K I'm ready to learn how this process will still allow total production in a few minutes?

How could this process supply units to be assembled fast enough ?

Are the machinery, troughs, belts inside the plant?

thanks

 

[WilliamH]

Can someone please explain.
Many posts including folks who worked on production lines, had calculations for the manufacturing process, and how many (seemed very few to me)
minutes it took to turn out units.
With this blog I learned
1st bath 120 sec.
2nd bath longer vat (actual time not given (guess same 120 sec)
shower. 60 sec
rinse 60. sec
reverse osmosis. 60 sec
dipped. 120 sec
rinse. 60 sec
another rinse (actual time not given) 60sec
another rinse 60 sec
40 minutes heated.
O K I'm ready to learn how this process will still allow total production in a few minutes?

How could this process supply units to be assembled fast enough ?

Are the machinery, troughs, belts inside the plant?

thanks

And keep in mind...... all of that stuff is just to get it ready to paint.

 

[Coss]

And keep in mind...... all of that stuff is just to get it ready to paint.

True, and we don't know the rest because the elves don't like sharing.

 

[booboo]

@ RUCRAYZE
If I added correctly, 12 minutes from shower to sauna, so I figure the Sauna fills up pretty fast, until 1 in 1 out every 12 minutes.
Assuming this is constant pace of the rest of the line, 1 every 12 minutes = 40 every 8 hours

 

[Made in USA]

Booboo, what they didn't tell you is that the bodies are conveyed one right after the other like train cars. They do not wait for one to clear before starting the next. The ovens are also designed to have multiple tracks for the conveyors. They might be able to have eight lanes wide. If anything, they will have a bottleneck further down the assembly line if they don't have multiple lanes for that assembly. Don't worry about the speed of the cleaning and painting lines.

 

[Ty]

To those who figured you don't have to wait for one to finish before the next starts, kudos. Keep in mind that these cars will be about 10' apart and that they really never stop moving. The 77' long tank will have around 4 Elios in it at all times, for example. Also, that Sauna has a lot in common with a Domino's Pizza oven. Did you know it takes about 7 minutes to cook a Domino's Pizza? They only fit in the ovens about 2 wide at the most but the little conveyor belt keeps them moving so Dominos can produce MANY more than 2 pizzas per 7 minutes. The same is true with auto manufacturing.

Rest assured, Elio is NOT reinventing the process at the old GM plant and there is NO WAY it will be slower to produce the little Elio than it was producing S-10s, Hombres, or Hummers. That means an Elio will complete each and every station every 54 seconds. They can slow the line down, of course and that will probably be the case at first but don't worry that it'd take 12 minutes per Elio. THAT won't happen. I don't even think they could run the line that slow.

 

[Rickb]

When EM's paint booth is up and running in 2018 it will look similar to Toyota's and other vehicle manufacturers. It shouldn't take that long to retool the former GM factory paint shop.