Ford is ramping up its equipment and tooling infrastructure as preparations for the next-gen Ranger inch ever closer. 

The new Stamping Plant at Ford's Silverton Operations is part of the company's R15.8-billion investment and clearly indicates the company's commitment to the country. This is the first time that this stage of vehicle manufacture will be brought in-house rather than relying on external suppliers. It is believed that the new Stamping Plant will dramatically improve efficiency and cost and result in higher quality panels. READ | Ford's new SA-built Ranger bakkie has a woman's touch: Meet engineer Kgothatso Kabene

This will be important as the company upscales its production, reaching a maximum potential capacity of 200 000 vehicles per year. At this rate, the Stamping Plant will be processing 272 tons of steel per day over a three-shift system! The entire line is fully automated, with an installed capacity of 16 strokes per minute.

"Our new Stamping Plant is a first for Ford in South Africa," says Rhys Davies, Site Transformation Manager at the Ford Silverton Assembly Plant. 

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'Delivering the highest levels of quality'

"Previously, we used external suppliers to stamp our metal body parts, but we decided to set up our own Stamping Plant for the Next-Gen Ranger, which will go into production later this year.

"With our focus on delivering the highest levels of quality and efficiency for the Next-Gen Ranger, it was essential that we brought the stamping operations in-house. This ensures that we can control the production quality throughout the stamping process, validate that all parts are within specification, and then seamlessly deliver them directly to our new Body Shop adjacent to the Stamping Plant."

The Stamping Plant measures 10 320m2 and comprises five tandem presses, including a 2 500-ton draw press, a 1 600-ton press and three 1 000-ton presses that stamp the flat sheet metal into the various inner and outer body panels required for all three body styles of the Ranger: Single Cab, SuperCab and Double Cab. 

The Stamping facility also boasts an advanced GOM ATOS ScanBox blue light scanner system. This is used to measure each part's perimeter and surface dimensions and generate an accurate 3D model that is compared to the stored 3D model on their computer system.

Production of the Next-Generation Ranger is expected to start later this year at the Silverton Plant,  alongside the local manufacture of Volkswagen's Amarok.

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