ere need to digress and point out that the concern Volkswagen - is not only "popular" car logo VW. Concern Volkswagen - the largest car manufacturer in the world. More than 25% of the cars traveling about on the roads of Europe, were built on the conveyors of this company.
At the moment, the Volkswagen Group owns the following car brands:
- Directly cars themselves Volkswagen
- Another famous German car brand - Audi
- Czech pride - Škoda
- Not very popular in the post-Spanish car brand - Seat
- Bentley - the most prestigious automobile brand of class "luxury»
- Italian manufacturer of supercars - Lamborghini
- Bugatti - French car brand, which produces the most expensive production cars in the world
- Porsche - another German company that makes most reliable and most profitable (for the manufacturer) cars in the world
- A company specializing in the production of trucks and buses - Scania and MAN
- Ducati - the only one in this list company producing no cars and motorcycles
It would be naive to believe that this huge list of motor companies produce in Wolfsburg. Local plant "locked up" under the production of several models of Volkswagen'a. Now it's Golf, Golf Sportsvan, Golf GTE, e-Golf, Tiguan and Touran, whereas previously it was made famous in Wolfsburg Volkswagen «Beetle» (Beetle in the English version and Käfer - in German-speaking). In total, the Group owns 107 plants worldwide, of which 28 are in Germany.
A bit of history.
Now this is not to say, but the appearance of such automotive brands as Volkswagen is directly related to the period of the Nazi party in Germany. One of the many populist ideas of Hitler was to provide every German family's personal car. With such a proposal he made in 1933, after consultation with the representative of the company «Daimler-Benz», as well as Ferdinand Porsche, whom he appointed curator of the "people's car».
Ferdinand Porsche, being conscientious and talented designer, coped with its task perfectly, leaving several projects affordable and accessible for every car. Subsequently, it was on his projects will be designed the legendary "Beetle».
May 26, 1938 among the fields and villages of western Germany was laid the first stone of the future plant. About the fields and villages - this is no exaggeration. Within a radius of a few tens of kilometers really was not a single major settlement. This arrangement required the construction of a single plant of the city, which began July 1, 1938. The new city was incredibly difficult for the Russian-speaking person name - Stadt des KdV Vagens buy Fallersleben (Stadt des KdF-Wagens bei Fallersleben). The city's name can be translated as "The City of KdF-Car near Fallersleben". Abbriviatura «KdF» stands for «Kraft durch Freude» or "Strength through Joy" - as in the days of the Third Reich called state organizations dealing with leisure of the population, and Fallersleben - while a small village, which is now part of Wolfsburg.
As I mentioned, that the idea of "people's car" was completely populist. On the construction of the plant began producing military equipment for the needs of Germany, doing it right up to the 1945. After World War II, the plant and the city were in the British occupation zone. Representatives of the island nation immediately renamed Stadt des KdV Vagens buy Fallersleben much more legkoproiznosimy Wolfsburg and management dilapidated factory set a condition: either plant will demolished or will truly be releasing "people's car", but still not less than 1000 pieces each month ( at that time - a huge number). However, this task successfully coped Volkswagen, gradually becoming the world leader in engineering.
At the moment, only the factory in Wolfsburg every day made 3800 new car brand Volkswagen, or one car every 18 seconds.
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Now let's take a look directly at the production. Go through the shops and see how out of nothing is not representing the parts and components make excellent cars.
Now it's just a huge rolls of steel, but soon they will fall under the press, will become a recognizable shape of the car and filled with mechanical and electronic filling.
And here are the same press. Every day, they work every day they punched parts.
From under them out various elements of the future of the body. As can be appreciated at this stage, these details will soon become part of the new Volkswagen Golf.
All physically heavy and harmful work, such as, for example, welding robots operate in a Volkswagen.
After work "conjured" with various parts of the machine, it turns out is almost ready body.
Color and body, and other details, of course, also robots. Actually, nowadays people do not have to constantly work with substances, so had a negative impact on health. Well, when once a few years to do home repair and paint the walls - such activities more acceptable, but not poison your body every day.
You might get the impression that at the Volkswagen factory employs only the robots, but it will be a mistake. At the factory in Wolfsburg involved about 60 000 people who are mainly engaged in manual work fine. This activity does not require much physical effort, so a lot of women conveyors. In addition, nearly 10 000 employees - workers is crazy. That is a huge number of people here at the factory in Wolfsburg, provides our steps into the future: the development of new models, improving technology, the search for new creative solutions and much, much more.
Workers on the assembly line, divided into teams for 14-16 people each. In order that they do not get tired of routine work, people within a team is allowed to vary independently of each other work tasks.
One of the most important processes in the assembly of the car - the so-called "marriage", or, in simple terms, the body docking with the transmission.
The most interesting for me was the process of the wheels.
Conveyor brings the workpiece future car and leave it in front of another robot. That, in turn, photographed place in which to set the wheel and is free to decide which way to twist it must bolts.
Here machines take on his name.
All finished cars (which, I remind you, are issued every 18 seconds) pass quality control. Checked as performance cars and their visual parameters.
And then ready to go to their cars for many years traveling around the world. Someone - in a nearby town, someone - on another continent. In the showrooms, they are waiting in the wings, in order to bring happiness to them prepared for the buyer. And perhaps you or your relatives, friends and acquaintances now go on the "people's car", which comes from the shops of the plant in a small German town called Wolfsburg.