Quote:
Originally Posted by aussiem3
I am no engineer and don't have the faintest idea when it comes to engines and its intricacies. But looking at the video, the S65 engine, the pistons are hand assembled and then the rest of the assembly is hand torqued and individually measured and entered into the computer so in the future when something drastic happens with the particular engine they can refer the assembly process.
I don't see an automated process to build the S65 engine accept for may be casting the blocks and machining the cylinder heads and pistons amongst other things. Putting the engine together is done by human just by watching that video.
Now how is this different to AMG's claim? But BMW doesn't claim it is hand building the engine. It's a pure marketing gimmick as far as I am concerned. Just noting my point here.
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The Video in Question was of pre-production S65 Engines (some of the first ever built). Production S65's are indeed assembly line built since the hand building that the video shows could not come close to keeping up with the volume required.
@ Swamp: I can't disagree with anything you have said above in reply to my post, as usual you have your facts in order.
Like you mentioned, cost is key in this equation and it costs a lot to hand assemble engines. As for machines making perfect parts time after time, you are almost correct, but many times the first parts from a batch will be better than the last parts out of a batch simply because cutter heads and other parts wear and that is where your variance comes from. At some point a machine needs to be re-calibrated to make up for this wear. A machine is only as good as the preventative maintenance program of the company that owns it, and since cash is king, preventative maintenance is getting cut back everywhere. When a machine has to go down for maintenance, production is affected and so is profit. However, with proper maintenance and adequate QC machines are definitely able to make virtually exact parts one after the other, the maintenance and QC is the variable and like I said above that is up to the company. (This reminds me of a story of a friend of mine who worked at the GM assembly line in Oshawa, Ontario........ He told me that by the end of the production run of the Eighth generation Chevrolet Impala, the dies used to stamp the body panels were so worn that the rear windows barely even fitted the body any more and GM refused to spend the money to replace them since the car was going out of production soon. The solution was to use extra urethane to take up the added gap between the window and body and stick the molding over top of it. I know we are not talking about GM here, but where ever cash is king sometimes corners are cut, no manufacturer shy of Bugatti or Rolls Royce are free of this type of thing)
Anyhow I can ramble on and on, but in the end I think we are both right, machines are simply amazing at mass production of identical parts, so much so that no human could ever hope to even come close to matching the volume yet keeping tolerances so close. At the same time a hand built engine is almost always going to have tolerances that that are tighter than the one produced by machines simply because there is more time and hands on involvement to allow this.
One thing that should be noted though, no automobile assembly line that I have ever seen has been able to totally eliminate people from the equation, there are always some humans in there!
Finally, I don't know of a machine made that can feel a grinding or drag, or hear a particular noise like a trained craftsman can. There are some things that machines just don't have and that is the human touch. If AMG engines are hand assembled like they claim, I think there is at least some value in that. They may not necessarily be better because of it, but as an engine builder myself I feel a connection to the fact that another person from my craft put it together with his hands even if it was from parts largely made by an automated machine with many high tech tools.