Lauren 2259 Report post Posted May 23, 2014 Deeside is where they make 1.6 and 1.8 ZR engines for the hybrids. We were taken into the PR room and given a briefing about Toyota, what the plant produces and where the engines are sent. Some are even sent to Japan, but they go all over the world. The hybrid part is not made here, but comes from Japan. Untitled by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr Untitled by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr Untitled by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr The 1.8ZR engine made at the plant: Untitled by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr A few others in reception: Untitled by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr A cut out A series. Always cool to see the workings: Untitled by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr We then had to don safety specs, hard hat, reflective vest and safety shoes and so the tour began. I should add that we weren't allowed to take any pictures or videos on the tour but our guide should have some photos for us soon. Firstly we went to the casting building where the engine blocks and heads are made. We were talked through the sand casting method used for hte low pressure items such as engine heads. We then got to see the furnace, they even opened the door. at 750C it was quite warm to be fair. We were then able to see the robots installing the liners into the cylinder block. Quite some noise going on for this bit. We had to constantly watch out for the robots named after an employee's twin children which kept coming round picking up head castings and moving them on to the next process. We were then taken into the testing room. Every 50 engines get a hot test which means running for sustained periods. This on a fast run is at 6500rpm for 180hours straight! We were able to see an engine in testing in the dyno cells. Think there were 6 dyno cells in all. Afterwards the engine is stripped down, all torque settings are checked and the engine is dismantled to examine for any signs of wear. These are scrapped afterwards. There is an impressive amount of recycling going on with even swarf being recycled. We were then talked through a warranty claim. This turned out to be an engine that had thrown a conrod through the block. Our guide talked us through their process of elimination in order that they could determine the cause of the failure. In this case were shown the block cut in two longitudinally. What we could see was that on the cylinder that had failed the piston had moved lower than the other three in the bore. It was also noted that 4 and 9 months previously that there had been error codes on the catalyst. The cause turned out to be that the owner had put a small amount of diesel in the petrol tank and the non combustion of the diesel when it had got into the cylinders via the fuel rail had caused the rod to slightly bend thus essentially hydrolocking the engine. It was explained to us that as diesel is denser than petrol it will tend to sit in the fuel rail and then get fed in to the cylinder when cornering. This explains why it was one conrod that failed rather than multiple ones. The engine had then run for another four months before suffering catastrophic failure. Really interesting stuff and we were all able to examine all the parts and understand the signs that caused it. Brilliant! Then we went to see the production line where all the parts we had seen being made earlier were being put together. There is a fair amount of automation and it was definitely cool watching the huge robots picking up heads and going through the process of drilling them, the camshafts being added and then the bolts being torqued up all at once as they were fed through on a conveyor. Quite a lot of stuff is still done by hand though and our guide talked us through the training process and how people are taught to get up to speed on the production line. For example to do put in and do up the sump bolts you have a time schedule of 13 seconds. Everything has to work like a well oiled machine. They train you by getting you to put on and take off wheel nuts for two hours to see if you can handle repetitive work. It's not for everyone. Then whilst the workers were on lunch we were able to get close up to the production line as nothing was moving. Here you could just walk along and follow the process of the engine coming together. Very cool. We were told about what happens if there is a problem that production of engines today was set at 510 and because there had been 23 minutes of stopped time so far, that the workers would be doing around half an hour of overtime to meet targets. Then when the production line started again we were able to watch it in motion. Very cool and I think we had about half an hour to take it all in. Its one of those scenarios where you may have seen similar things on the telly but this was seeing it for real, a very different experience. After this we got out of all the safety gear and were presented with a lovely lunch by Toyota before a final briefing and then photos of our cars for Toyota. All in all it was just a brilliant day and just so interesing. Rob and Dave our tour guides were simply excellent and were there to answer any questions that we had. Also an absolutely huge thanks to Richard and Gary at RRG Macclesfield for organising an excellent day out and a rare view of how Toyota make their engines. 1 chopper602 reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Riceburner 284 Report post Posted May 23, 2014 Excellent report as always Lauren and I think the tour was really well organised and presented. As soon as I get the photos from Rob I will post them on here and send any that are wanted by email if required. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
speedy 32 Report post Posted May 23, 2014 Great write up and pictures, sounds like a really excellent day out :+: Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jamie_GRMN 177 Report post Posted May 23, 2014 Brill report lauren, sorry I could only make it out for a little bit of it, but unfortunately I had a day job to do there as well managed to speak to a few though, mine and bens 86's looked lonely after yours had all gone... I'll give rob a kick to get the photos sorted on Tuesday Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Riceburner 284 Report post Posted May 23, 2014 Good to meet you today Jamie and hope you can make a few meets/TSS sprint maybe? Big huge thanks to Rob & Dave(sorry for forgetting your name before whoops!)they made an excellent job of the tour and presentation Many thanks TMUK Richard Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jamie_GRMN 177 Report post Posted May 23, 2014 Meets and sprints are my top priority after the Prescott event and it's all set up properly was planning croft TSS as the first but hopefully the one before Glad everyone enjoyed it, Rob couldn't believe it, normally when we have visitors they are the least interested people in the world Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Keethos 842 Report post Posted May 24, 2014 Wow, awesome write-up Lauren, spot on! The only thing that would have made the tour even better was getting some hands on time in the Dojo (the training room where new employees spend their first week practicing bolting bits onto an engine in a static environment, then they go onto training to do the same but on a moving line before actually working on the real production line). Since there was no training going on, would have been fun to actually put things together and bolts stuff to engines and what not in the Dojo.....or at least have a mess around by having a speed challenge for who can screw on all the nuts for a wheel on the training wheel wall the quickest. A big massive thanks to Rich for organising this, Garry for his contacts, Rob and Dave for the tour and the great members of this club for taking time off work to attend this event. It was nice meeting you Jamie and Ben (another fellow Toyota employees who also owns a GT86), hope to meet you guys again in the near future at a meet or something. It was also good to meet some new people there too, Ian and his son Kyle (forgive me if I got your names wrong, I'm terrible with names in general) and also meeting Senna for the first time though very disappointed that he didn't turn up in his 86.....or Faith for that matter . We saw someone else in an 86 drive in for the afternoon shift followed by AmazingCrow (who I never knew worked there).....why didn't you stop by for a chat or more pics with more 86's? I'm hoping we can do something like this again and hopefully I can see if we can organise something similar at the Toyota Vehicle Assembly Plant in Derby. Fingers crossed. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Westonian 13 Report post Posted May 24, 2014 Just wanted to say a huge thanks to Rich and Gary for arranging the day. My lad and if found the whole day really interesting even the water treatment plant!! In was also great to meet so many fellow drivers. The only downside was the six hour nightmare motorway journey back to somerset. We arrived home at 8.30 pm and I was suffering from a bad cast of road rage. Why do these old twats insist on hogging the outside lane doing 60mph.!! My son despaired by the number of times I had to undertake!! Thanks again guys and I look forward to seeing the photographs. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
faith 237 Report post Posted May 24, 2014 It was great, and fab write up. Thanks for organising and as always nice to catch up with you guys. Cheers for the room and curry Alec.I also had a bit of a trek back home, but stopped off and met Pitman for coffee which broke up the journey for me :-) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mike 458 Report post Posted May 24, 2014 Fantastic write up Lauren.. did you make notes?! Thanks go to Rich / Gary for organising and Rob / Dave for taking us around, loved seeing the robots especially the 2 trolley style ones just moving around! Only downer was the weather... and going the wrong way twice.. although I blame Faith for one of those! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lauren 2259 Report post Posted May 24, 2014 Thanks, Mike, I just remembered it somehow. At least with going the wrong way we were able to use the quick turn around technique with the help of the LSD. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mike 458 Report post Posted May 24, 2014 No quick turn arounds for me, both involved motorways! Lauren: were you in the Flixton area today? My mum said she saw "a car like mine" but with a red stripe + red wheels on go past the house this afternoon. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lauren 2259 Report post Posted May 24, 2014 I was around that way my friend lives there. I went up there for a natter and dog walkies in the rain. It's quite hard for it be someone else! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mike 458 Report post Posted May 25, 2014 Haha, yep, as soon as my mum mentioned the red stripe I thought it may have been you, the red wheels pretty much confirmed it! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Amazing Crow 10 Report post Posted May 25, 2014 Glad you guys enjoyed it, I'm really sorry I missed joining you. They work us very hard there so I needed my sleep, I was the orange GT86 (behind the red) that you saw bombing into the employees car park at 1:50, almost late Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Riceburner 284 Report post Posted May 27, 2014 Rob from TMUK has just sent me photos from the Tour so here goes A great day was had by all Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rob275 1817 Report post Posted May 27, 2014 so fashionable! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
faith 237 Report post Posted May 27, 2014 hahaha, love it! cheers for sharing Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Westonian 13 Report post Posted May 27, 2014 Great pics Rich thanks for posting these. Ian Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lauren 2259 Report post Posted May 27, 2014 Great pics. Are we allowed to post these elsewhere? Just wanted to check. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Riceburner 284 Report post Posted May 27, 2014 Great pics. Are we allowed to post these elsewhere? Just wanted to check. Yeah no problem Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Keethos 842 Report post Posted May 27, 2014 Really do wish that the photo's were taken from the opposite side.....my good side..... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
