Volkswagen Group South Africa (VWSA) has officially opened its new R500-million, 10 000 m² press shop at its plant in Uitenhage, in the Eastern Cape. The new press line consists of six presses, with a total capacity of 81 000 kN.

The newest addition to the plant brings the total investment by Volkswagen in its South African manufacturing operations between 2006 to 2012 to R5.4-billion.

VWSA is the first manufacturing plant in the Volkswagen production network and in the world to install a press line that combines wave motion technology, partnered with Cobra robotics technology.

The continuous wave technology press, which was jointly developed by Spanish press manufacturing company Fagor and German automation company KUKA, was designed to allow the presses to cycle in a wave pattern, unlike the conventional start-stop press lines in which the presses cycle together, explained VWSA board chairperson and Volkswagen production board member Dr Hubert Waltl on the weekend.

The Cobra robots have been named for the striking movement of the cobra snake.

The robot moves parts through the press process much faster than conventional systems. This leads to a 30% reduction in energy consumption.

The new press shop also has the flexibility to change dies in less than five minutes through an automated process, as compared with the manual process that takes hours to complete, said Waltl.

The new press replaces a press shop that was, in parts, decades old, and looked “like a museum”, said head of press shops for the Volkswagen brand, Andreas Strutz.

He said the construction of a new press shop came on the back of work to increase the quality of products supplied to Volkswagen customers.

Strutz also noted that there remains a lot of work to be done at the press shop, such as integrating the 27 dies used, stabilising the production process and improving the quality of the final product.

The new press shop is currently in the ramp-up phase and will be fully operational in July.

At full capacity, the line can deliver 8 541 strokes a day.

VWSA’s Uitenhage plant produces right-hand drive Polo and CrossPolos for local and international markets, as well as the Polo Vivo for the South African market.

Polo Vivo and Polo were South Africa’s best-selling passenger cars in 2012 with 34 873 and 28 667 units sold respectively.

In 2012, the Uitenhage plant produced 112 514 cars, exporting 54 225 Polos and CrossPolos.
 
At the moment, the volume forecast for 2013 was similar for both production and export, noted the company.