Although the minivan has become nearly as ubiquitous on North American streets as pickup trucks, the penetration of the vehicle in the European market is comparatively minuscule. But that's changing, although it should be noted that rather than calling the vehicles "minivans," they're described as "mini-MPVs"--multi-purpose vehicles. According to DaimlerChrysler, there were 250,000 MPVs sold in Europe in 1998; sales are expected to reach 960,000 units in 2004...which explains why Mercedes-Benz is Launching the Vaneo mini-MPV. The Vaneo is being built at the corporation's Ludwigsfelde plant (south of Berlin). The plant began production of the vehicles in October. 2001. The initial production rate is 50,000 units per year; according to the firm, the production could be expanded to 70,000 units.

The Ludwigsfelde plant has been producing commercial trucks since 1991. Subsequent to the announcement of the location of the Vaneo at the facility, DaimlerChrysler has invested 500-million Euros there for improving existing buildings, constructing new ones, improving the infrastructure, and training employees. For example, there is a new 20,000-[m.sup.2] body shop. The 19,800-m2 main assembly hall underwent major refurbishment. The paint shop, a 15,000-[m.sup.2] area, was completely stripped and rebuilt.

The body shop and the paint shop are connected by an 80-in long bridge. There are two main assembly lines in the body shop; 130 ABB robots are used for welding. There are ultrasonic sensors used to monitor weld quality. Four Perceptron in-line measuring units check build quality. Additionally, there are two more CNC-controlled measurement checks on the body shells before they make the trip to the paint shop.

In paint, there's pre-treatment and phosphating, followed by a cathodic dip primer. Eleven industrial robots are used to spray paint. One interesting feature of the paint shop is a DaimlerChrysler first: the use of a condensation process for drying the base coat. The Vaneo is available in 10 different colors, six of which are optional metallic coatings.

Another interesting finishing-related aspect is that the entire underbody is coated with a smooth plastic material that is said to reduce wind resistance and road noise and prevent corrosion.

From paint, it is on to final assembly where approximately 2,000 more parts are put together to create the van--the MPV, that is.

Painting with Water at Toyota

Kermit Whitfield

Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky's Plant Two paint department has developed the flexibility to paint both cars and minivans in the same facility. They're painting small lots with high finish quality, all while dealing with the unforgiving nature of the water-borne process.

Let's start with some basic facts: Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky's (TMMK's) Plant Two paint department is the only one in North America that paints both cars and minivans on the same line. It processes approximately 500 Camrys and Siennas per shift on two shifts. It uses solvent for primer and clearcoat, but basecoat is water-borne. From the electrodeposition process to the application of cavity wax, there are 13 distinct steps that a body-in-white goes through to become a painted body ready for the assembly line, and it all takes about 10 hours.

Cars and Minivans... Together

The simple statement that cars and minivans are processed on the same line encompasses a lot. In doing this, Toyota has chosen a path that diverges from its competitors. Most automakers find that though the flexibility to produce different body styles on the same line may be theoretically desirable, in reality the modifications that must be made to accommodate vehicles that vary significantly in size inevitably argues for a dedicated facility. However, unlike other car companies that have', dedicated minivan platforms, Toyota designed the Sienna on the Camry platform with an eye toward making both models on the same line. This has entailed some adjustments in the paint shop, but arguably far fewer than you would expect.

The main accommodation is that the Sienna can only use two of the three basecoat/clearcoat lines. This is chiefly because it only takes two lines to handle Siena production volumes, and some modifications in paint flow rate are necessary, but also because Toyota wants to maintain one line for exclusive' production of the Camry. The basecoat painting process on a Camry takes 118 seconds. But because of the greater surface area for the Sienna, a process time of 150 seconds is required. So, Toyota sets aside, one line that can' crank through its bread-and-butter product at the fastest pace allowable, instead of reducing the line speed of all three.

This all gets sorted out by computer in a large staging area. After bodies are primed and masked they roll on their dollies into the staging area. As they cross the threshold, a magnetic plate on the bottom of each dolly is read which tells the sorting computer what color the body is to be painted. Based on this information the computer moves the dollies onto one of four tracks that lead to each basecoat booth.