Success of integrated hydraulic press and tooling has led Nissan to equip its Sunderland plant with two new presses for the assembly of the new Micra's rear brake assembly.
Twelve years after it first installed a suite of Hare hydraulic presses for the assembly of front axle components for its Bluebird model, Nissan has taken the decision to equip its Sunderland plant with Hare's latest combined press and tooling technology for use in the production of the soon to be launched New Micra and future Nissan cars. Last year Nissan called in Hare to retool five of its original 10GP, 16GP and 25GP presses. These are now being used in the production of the front bearing assembly for the new Primera.

The success of this integrated press and tooling combination has led Nissan to equip its Sunderland plant with two new 10GP (100kN) presses for the assembly of the new Micra's rear brake assembly.

One of the factors influencing Nissan's decision to expand its investment in Hare's hydraulic presses has been their enviable reliability.

The original presses have maintained uptimes averaging 99.9%.

But this was just one of the factors that Stan Taylor, Engineer, Trim and Chassis Engineering, considered when he originally looked at his plant investment for the Primera last year.

Taylor explained: 'We could have refitted the plant with specialist machines which would have cost ten times as much - but the reliability and controllability of the hydraulic presses in conjunction with the highly advanced tooling made much more sense.

When we need to equip the plant for future models we'll already have the machinery in place - we'll just need to change the tooling.' One year on, this flexible, 'future proof' formula has held Hare in good stead, as Nissan once again opted for the hydraulic press and tooling combination for the New Micra.

By coordinating the flexibility of Hare's PLC equipped hydraulic presses and their specialist Intec tooling, the companies worked closely together to deliver Nissan with a multi-process solution with integrated 100% in-process inspection.

Once the brake drum and bearing are loaded into the tool by the operator and the guard activated, the first action of the press is to insert the wheel bearing into the assembly.

The bearing grease is then evenly distributed via the rotation of the test head, and the bearing is then tested for its friction loading via a torque converting load cell.

With the assembly meeting the correct tolerances, the final operation is the automated insertion of the retaining circlip.

The entire process takes just 35 seconds and the component quality is checked at every stage.

With three processes streamlined into one, an additional advantage is the reduction of handling operations and thus operator fatigue.

Phil Cornell, Operations Director for PJ Hare added: 'With Nissan, operating one of the most efficient car manufacturing plants in Europe, it demanded a solution that provided reliability, flexibility and the ability to integrate with its 'just-in-time' philosophy.

Our press and tooling solution did just that - and at the same time it saved our client unnecessary expense on project specific machinery.' Whilst the Hare presses are to be used for the Primera and new Micra, the decision to invest in the integrated press and tooling approach will equip Nissan with a firm and flexible foundation on which to develop production strategies for future models.