 News of October 12, 1999
Page 4 of 4
.
Toyota
to manufacture transmissions in central Europe's biggest nation
. |
European production of Toyota vehicles and components is
broadening. The automaker is preparing to build a plant in Poland to produce
transmissions.
. |
Toyota's Plant in U.K.
Photo: Toyota |
Toyota's Polish plant will supply transmissions to Toyota
vehicle plants in the United Kingdom, France, and Turkey. It will make manual
transmissions for engines of displacements from 1.3 liters to 1.8 liters, and it will be
able to produce about 250,000 transmissions a year. The plant will employ about 300 people
and will begin operation in early 2002. |
| The Polish plant will be Toyota's second plant for producing crucial
components locally in Europe. Toyota produces engines at a plant in north Wales. That is
in addition to the company's vehicle manufacturing in the United Kingdom and, starting in
2001, in France. |
Photo: Toyota
. |
| Toyota is raising the value of its North American operations,
too, by localizing production of engines and transmissions. Its big plant in Kentucky
makes engines, as well as assembling vehicles. Toyota also makes engines at its Canadian
vehicle plant, in Ontario, and at a new engine plant in West Virginia. The West Virginia
plant will add transmissions to its product line, starting in 2001. |
Another
Ford First: Pressure sensitive paint
. |
| Ford researchers have found a new way to measure the external
pressures exerted on automobiles: using pressure sensitive paint (PSP). An advanced
optical imaging technique that measures pressure on aerodynamic surfaces, PSP has been
used extensively for measuring airplane loads and for validation of computational fluid
dynamic codes on aircraft models. Ford worked with McDonnell Douglas, one the first PSP
developers, to make PSP ready for the automotive industry. PSP has two primary
advantages over pressure ports, which have traditionally been used by automotive
engineers. First, PSP can be applied without changing the smooth surface characteristics
of the model. Secondly, it provides more pressure data from wind tunnel testing earlier in
the vehicle program, resulting in better understanding of critical flow fields that affect
various aspects of automotive design points. PSP offers a full field of surface data
whereas pressure points only gave information on discreet points. Ford expects full
implementation of PSP by the end of the year. |
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