The Ford petrol lineup in India will receive a new heart in the form of a 1.5-litre three-cylinder petrol engine. Its arrival in India will take place in the new EcoSport. To show us everything, Ford took us to their engine assembly plant in Sanand and here is our visit in photos.
This engine plant is located in Sanand and is Ford’s second facility in the country. In terms of models, this plant currently builds the Figo and Aspire but it will eventually also start producing the new EcoSport. It is capable of producing 2,40,000 cars annually.
1. The engine assembly plant in Sanand builds both diesel and petrol units and is capable of producing 2,70,000 units a year. It’s an ISO Class 8 cleanroom standard facility and is divided into two engine assembly sections and one testing section. These are modular assembly lines and both diesel and petrol can be produced one after the other.
2. The assembly line is a mixed bag of human efforts as well as robots working side-by-side to build the engines. While human hands are involved in tasks like overall construction, the robots are used for very specific purposes like precision-welding as well as torqueing of certain bolts on various parts of the engine.
3. With so many robots, the entire assembly line is controlled centrally, right from the selection of the engine block all the way to the attachment of fly wheel and manifolds. Ford has said that the assembly is tracked in such a manner that every engine component is tested and tracked enroute to it being brought to life.
4. Once the engine has been assembled, piping et al, it is put through an array of further tests including some rotations without firing up. The engine is now a whole metal and is not too far away from being the heart for a new Ford in a variety of countries on both sides of the dashboard.
5. The engine block now exits the main plant section and moves to an annex where the hot test takes place. It is here that the engine is supplied with fuel and fired to the beat of a three-pot motor being audible and in action for the first time. It is revved up to 2000rpm as a part of the test.
Photos: Bilal Firfiray