what materials were used to create the ford assembly line

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This digital model and film show, for the showtime time, the entire Model T being assembled from start to stop in a single time-lapse shot of the Ford factory in Highland Park, Michigan. Numerous photos were taken and some films were made in the 1910s and 1920s, merely no pic from the time tracks the entire car'due south assembly from get-go to finish. At that place were many types of Model Ts produced, but the specific motorcar shown hither is the 1915 Model T Runabout. Lookout the film and see as the various car components are hoisted over and bolted into place. Or walk across the mill flooring in the virtual reality calculator model.

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The flick's audio replicates the sound of Model T production. The accompanying music at kickoff and end is from the 1936 moving-picture show Modern Times, where comedian Charlie Chaplin parodies Ford's assembly line product methods.

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Explore Model T associates in virtual reality.
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Henry Ford did not invent the car, nor he did invent the assembly line to produce the car. For years before Ford, cars were being congenital in small numbers at local workshops. For centuries before Ford, assembly line production was being used to brand all manner of goods like pins, fabrics, and steel. At the same time as Ford, others were making cars and building associates lines.

Ford was not the commencement, but his car and moving associates line were certainly the most successful and memorable. After creating his version of the automobile in 1896, Ford moved workshops start to Mack Artery and later to Piquette Avenue in Detroit. These first 2 factories were small-scale-scale structures for express motorcar product. But in 1913 at Ford'due south third manufacturing plant at Highland Park did mass-production begin on a truly large scale. As shown in this film, here Ford applied assembly line methods throughout the factory to all aspects of motorcar production.

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Concluding Stage of Model T Assembly in Highland Park c.1915, David Kimble'southward illustration for National Geographic

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Between when the first Model T rolled off the assembly line in 1913 and when the 15 millionth rolled off in 1927, the car'due south appearance did not alter significantly. The car chassis, motor, and color-scheme in 1927 were nigh identical to 1913. Despite variations in the number of seats and exterior of car, the motor and chassis beneath were consistent and unchanging over time. Henry Ford liked it that way to bring down costs and to produce the greatest diversity of car types with every bit few variations as possible to the motorcar's internal structure.

Nonetheless, although Ford resisted changes to his machine design, he was always redesigning the factory floor and assembly line to produce the greatest number of cars with the least corporeality of human labor. In this same flow from 1913 to 1927, the Highland Park factory was constantly redesigned and expanded. Few records survive of all changes to the factory. Nonetheless, the 1915 book Ford Methods and the Ford Shops includes detailed plans and photos of the manufacturing plant at one indicate in time. Ford was nonetheless tinkering with the assembly line, as Model T product had begun just over a year before this book was printed. Inside a few months of these photos, assembly line methods had improved once once again as Ford redesigned the factory flooring shown in this moving-picture show. Rather than documenting Ford product for all time, this film captures Ford product the way information technology looked in the months it started.

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Associates line flowchart of River Rouge c.1941, showing Ford'southward production methods practical to the blueprint of an entire circuitous. The ideas in embryo at Highland Park become fully visible at River Rouge.

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After Ford stopped producing Model Ts in 1927, newer models started production at the new and larger factory at River Rouge, where Ford makes cars to this day. The Highland Park mill switched to producing other goods like tractors and later tanks for WWII. Inside a few years, product methods had then quickly improved nether Ford that Highland Park became too small and obsolete. The factory was largely demolished, and with its demolition the initial appearance of Ford'southward first and greatest invention was lost for all fourth dimension: the moving assembly line.

Some of the factory buildings still stand, and the specific role of the factory shown in this picture show still exists. But the buildings were all cleared of their original machinery, and the nearly impressive office of Ford's invention was non the factory itself merely instead the equipment and processes inside that factory that are no longer visible. The buildings themselves were simply functional warehouses designed with large open spaces to let the easy movement of mechanism.

The entire complex covered many acres, and the other factories that supplied the Highland Park mill with materials and components created a spider web of trade that spanned the globe. Instead of filming the entire process, this picture focuses on the concluding and most important stage of production where finished parts from all over the globe and manufactory complex came together for last testing and assembly.

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Sources

Main reference text: Fay Leone Faurote and Horace Lucian Arnold. Ford Methods and the Ford Shops. New York, Applied science Magazine Company: 1915. Come across esp. Chapter V on "Chassis-Assembling Lines" that includes factory flooring programme and photos from pages 131-57. Also see pages 142-150 that describe the 45 steps required for chassis assembly. Link.

Main reference photo: David Kimble. "Exploring the Model T Factory." Motor1.com. September one, 2017. Link. Kimble's image originally published in June 1987 National Geographic centerfold.

Blitheness opening image: Postcard of Highland Park in 1917. Link.

Animation opening music: Manufactory Scene from Modern Times, directed by Charlie Chaplin in 1936. Link.

Model T shown in moving picture can be downloaded as a computer model at this link.

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Source: https://www.myleszhang.org/2021/10/09/ford-assembly-line/

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