Press Release
Every A8 body can be applied with 15 different series colours and numerous special paint finishes. In total, 1,250 people work in the paint shop in Neckarsulm of which around 150 are exclusively concerned with the paint finish for the A8. The process then moves from the paint shop to the assembly area, which was converted, extended and restructured at a cost of around EUR 60 million. Some 800 people are employed there in an area covering some 36,000 square meters. Final assembly of the new A8 takes place in 74 cycles (each cycle being six metres) on a single line that is over 440 metres long in total. A new development on the A8 is the outsourcing of the doors and the front-end module. The doors are thus dismantled immediately after the start of the assembly process and transported via an electric telpher line to the second floor of the new south annex for pre-assembly. There the door modules are completely put together and tested, subsequently brought via the conveyance technology to almost the halfway point of the assembly line and attached to the body once again. The benefits of this outsourcing are among other things shorter production times as the doors need not be opened and closed again at every working stage, and considerably improved ergonomics for the employees on the assembly line. In addition, the required material can be positioned a good one meter nearer on the assembly line as there is no interference from the opened doors. As well as the door modules, the front end is also pre-assembled as a separate module in the second upper floor of the south annex and then brought to the vehicle at a later point in the assembly line. The joining of the drive components with the body the so-called "marriage" is also new. Whereas "only"? the engine, transmission and the front and rear axle were located separately using two installation vehicles on the previous A8, Audi has changed over to a driverless transport system (FTS) enabling complete installation. In other words, not only the complete suspension and drive units are placed on and located by a single installation vehicle but also the exhaust system, fuel tank and propeller shaft. The screws are tightened with electronically controlled screwdrivers throughout the assembly area. In this EC screwdriving technology, the employee on the production line scans in the vehicle's identification number and thus primes? the screwdriving operation. This now knows? how many screw points must be tightened and at what torque and stores the data in relation to the identification numbers. A protocol is finally created to ascertain whether the screw operation has been carried out successfully. The data record is then archived in a databank. In this way, every screw operation on the new A8 is comprehensively documented. Following the assembly, the vehicle passes to the restructured finish area, which comprises the car wash, seal inspection, surface control, the audits of the quality assurance, battery recharging, scanning of the car inspection card and the headlight test rig. above photo caption:
Laser/MIG hybrid welding process: a world premiere in vehicle construction with aluminium, this is a combination of conventional laser and arc welding processes
