Manufacturing of body parts for foreign and domestic cars

“Kuzovschina” – a capricious lady

Yes, capricious. And body repair specialists know this better than anyone else. The tinsmith will not undertake to install just any wing, but if he does, he will warn: the product is not “original”, and here the gap will be increased.

Or, let’s say, this hood has a “birth injury”, it is deformed. It fits normally to the right mudguard, but forms a hump on the left one. And the door you brought has rust stains and crevice corrosion in the flanges. Why? But because the metal is simply “black”, not protected by phosphating and priming. The part lay in the open air and “bloomed”.

Okay, the master reluctantly agrees, I’ll supply your part and paint it, but I won’t accept any complaints. Address them to the person who produces this “tin.”

What should the owner of a Lada bat do? Looking for body parts produced by AVTOVAZ? This is not at all necessary, and we will try to prove this in the following sections of the article.

Alternative to the "original"

Coordinate measuring equipment
Let's turn our attention to a manufacturer whose products are not inferior to those from Togliatti. This is Nachalo software from Naberezhnye Chelny. For more than two decades, this company has been supplying our cars with brake pads, clutch discs, ball joints, suspension arms and other auto components.

There are also body parts in the company's assortment. However, there is - that's an understatement. For these products, Nachalo software is the undisputed leader in the secondary market. Judge for yourself: every year the company produces about a million body parts, covering most brands and models of Russian cars and restyled modifications.

The assortment includes more than 100 items - these are doors, hoods, fenders, roof panels, various crankcase protections, radiator frames, beams and other products and components (for example, hood reinforcements).

Impressive. However, our reader will not be surprised by the breadth and scope. He is a pragmatic person, and therefore he will immediately ask: what about the quality? To answer this question, let’s define the components of this very quality. In relation to body parts, they are as follows: – high-quality sheet steel with the “correct” microstructure; – precise stamping equipment, powerful presses and strict adherence to technological requirements; – product quality control, flexible feedback from production.

Now let's go through the above points.

Not original

Non-original parts still cause some distrust of quality. And it arose at a time when the Russian market was overflowing with cheap and low-quality Chinese goods.

The concept of “unoriginal” became a household name and sounded like a synonym for the word “China”. However, in recent years, the attitude towards non-original body parts has changed dramatically. The Russian auto parts market is widely represented by products from European countries, which are of very good quality. In addition, certified Taiwanese spare parts from well-known brands have proven themselves well. Unfortunately, the vast majority of Chinese manufacturers are still significantly inferior in product quality to their competitors.

Metal

The steel used in sheet stamping must be sufficiently ductile to “flow” in the die and not tear even during deep drawing. Foreign inclusions that go beyond the specifications are not allowed in it - this is the initial condition for the corrosion resistance of the future part. After all, impurities generate galvanic couples, and this is beneficial for corrosion.

Cold-rolled sheets made of low-carbon high-quality steel in accordance with GOST 9045-93 fully meet the required conditions. This is the kind of steel that is supplied to car factories for the production of bodies. It also goes to the Nachalo production plant. This is the first reason why body parts produced under the Nachalo brand fully correspond to the original spare parts of the car manufacturer. The first, but not the only one.

Hood reinforcement

Stamping equipment

A stamp is a very precise tool. The fact that it is designed to provide the dimensions and geometry of the product is clear. But that is not all. It is important that after stamping is completed, no parasitic residual stresses arise in the part. Then the wing, when placed on the body, will not move like a screw, and the hood will not “hump”. How to take these subtleties into account?

Let's start with the fact that body parts of the Nachalo brand are produced according to original specifications and drawings. For most of the product range, the company produces dies independently, in its own tool shop.

The development and design of dies is carried out using computer-aided design systems - CAD.

However, today the English abbreviation CAD is in use - Computer Aided Design. But this does not change the essence.

To ensure an ideal “docking” of the part with the factory body (may readers forgive me for the “cosmic” terms), mathematical modeling of the working surfaces of the die equipment is used.

And here is a digital model of the stamp in the computer memory. The stage of its “materialization” begins. This is entrusted to a high-precision CNC milling machine (in English - Computer Numeric Control, abbreviated as CNC). As a result, the accuracy of the resulting stamp is ideal, the time to master new products is minimal, and the human factor is practically absent.

But what is important: at the pre-production stage, the welding equipment is stamped and undergoes multiple checks for compliance with the 30-model, created according to the factory drawing of the part.

For control, modern coordinate measuring equipment HERA SP 12-9-7 (Italy) and a FARO Platinum 10 CMM with a laser scanning head (Switzerland) are used. So any deviations in the shape and size of the stamp from the 30-model are tracked literally “before birth”. And, of course, they are eliminated in a timely manner.

As a result, the shape and dimensions of the stamped body parts exactly correspond to the original products. So the stamping equipment in Nachalo software is in perfect order.

Specifics of using molds for the automotive industry

Any geometric deviations in the finished product turn into cracks and gaps on the car body, which are visible to the naked eye. Therefore, the production of molds for the automotive industry places high demands on both the preparation of 3D models of the product and equipment, and on the capabilities of the enterprise where the PF will be manufactured.

It is important to correctly predict production volumes in order to obtain the optimal cost of equipment, which largely depends on the selected metal.

Presses and technologies

For stamping body parts, German and domestic crank presses with a force of 400 to 1000 tf, installed in three lines, are used. At the head of each are double-action presses with a force of 500 and 1000 tf, which make it possible to produce complex parts, including those requiring deep drawing. Not every enterprise can afford such “heavy artillery”.

The design of the crank mechanism itself makes it possible to obtain favorable kinematic characteristics of the slider, in particular, the speed of the tool, also called the deformation rate. And it is closely related to another characteristic - the rate of deformation of the material of the product itself, which is extremely important for the correct “flow” of the metal.

Kinematics, fine-tuning of equipment plus a precision stamp, as already mentioned, are the main conditions so that at the end of stamping the part does not have residual stresses - then it will definitely not fail.

Fiberglass body parts: they don’t rot, but what’s the catch?

“Recently there have been a lot of advertisements on the Internet about the sale of fiberglass body parts. Please tell us more about them, all the pros and cons. How do they behave in accidents? Are there any problems with resistance to temperatures and technical fluids? Do they paint without problems?

Fiberglass body parts are manufactured in Belarus by several small companies. The material is fiberglass impregnated with polyester or epoxy resin. You can make everything from it, from “eyelashes” on headlights to body panels. When properly manufactured, these parts are very strong and durable. Previously, the material was actively used in tuning, but today standard parts are often made from it.

Fiberglass should not be confused with ABS plastic. In industrial applications, it is more convenient to work with the latter, since the technology for manufacturing body parts from fiberglass requires the use of a large amount of manual labor.

As for strength, it all depends on the quality of workmanship. Body parts made of fiberglass from Grodno are widespread on the market. They made several videos with crash tests of their parts - judging by the video, there are no problems with strength. True, stronger parts could have been made for testing, but according to reviews there are really no problems with strength. However, the use of non-original body parts means making changes to the design. No one has crash tested cars whose metal body parts were replaced with fiberglass, so we can’t say anything about safety.

We can only guess. If you change only the front fenders, this is unlikely to significantly affect safety, because many cars use these elements made of plastic. But if all the attached iron and thresholds are replaced with fiberglass, then there is a risk that safety problems will arise, because non-factory changes are made to the programmed cage of crushable zones.

Thanks to fiberglass, the weight of the car is reduced (although the weight distribution may also change), the material is repairable and is able to return to its shape after impacts. But the most important thing is that it does not rust. At all.

There are no problems with installing parts if they are made with high quality. If there are any complaints, they concern small things and can be eliminated. Kuzovplastic employees assure that they make matrices using original spare parts. If everything is in order with the body geometry, the parts are installed without problems. The declared temperature range is from -60°C to +140°C, and there were no complaints about painting or resistance to technical fluids.

Today, fiberglass parts are made for many models. Basically, cars were selected that have a high resource, limited, in fact, by the body. The Grodno company's product range includes body parts for Audi A5, A6 (C4), A6 (C5); Infiniti FX35; Ford Transit, Galaxy; Mercedes-Benz W202, W124, W210, W140, Sprinter W901-W905, Sprinter W906, Vito W638, Vito W639; Nissan Patrol (Y61) and Primera (P11); SEAT Alhambra; Volkswagen LT, T4 and Sharan. Mostly wings are sold, sometimes doors.

The list of spare parts is constantly growing. As we were told at Kuzovplastic, they plan to produce body parts for all cars. They say that they are even preparing to take over Taiwan, where inexpensive iron parts are produced. In Grodno they believe that Taiwanese parts are of worse quality - they do not fit into gaps or quickly rust.

As for prices, the parts cannot be called expensive, considering how much manual labor is used in production. Cars that are particularly susceptible to corrosion are often offered rusty parts. There are new ones from Taiwan - sometimes they are cheaper, sometimes more expensive, but they say that there may be nuances in quality. In general, there is a point in purchasing and installing fiberglass parts, but you should still approach this with caution, since the market may sell low-quality parts from manufacturers who are just getting their feet wet.

Yuri GLADCHUK Photo from open sources ABW.BY

If you have experience installing and operating fiberglass body parts, be sure to share it on the forum.

More than 7,500 fenders for any car on the BAMPER.BY . Search for any spare part in three clicks!

The roof is moving

Let’s also talk about new products - after all, the company’s range is constantly expanding.

Oddly enough, in accidents the roof of a car is often damaged. Yes, so much so that it requires replacement. To meet the wishes of the repair market, in May 2013 it mastered the production of roof panels for cars of the “tenth” family (catalog number 2110-5701012-10).

And this year the company began producing roof panels for cars 2108 (catalog number 2108-5701012). E1 new products are complete analogues of factory-produced panels, which is confirmed by numerous tests.

When mastering these panels, an interesting task arose - ensuring precise connections with the frame of the factory body. Flo, if you carefully read the previous sections, you already understand that this task was successfully solved. The intelligence of specialists, electronics and the latest measuring equipment can do even more.

And now the part is manufactured - within tolerance, without parasitic voltages. Before sending it to the consumer, it must be protected from external influences, primarily atmospheric. For this purpose, the company has galvanizing and painting shops.

For example, to protect against corrosion, the part is degreased in an alkaline solution, phosphated, coated with BML primer and subjected to hot drying at a temperature of 180°C. For processing, the dipping method is used, due to which the primer lies smoothly, without smudges, filling all cavities that are inaccessible to a brush and sprayer.

Speaking about control, we note that the plant has long had ISO quality systems in place. This means that product quality is monitored at all stages of production, right down to packaging, transportation and analysis of consumer feedback.

Epilogue

We hope that readers are convinced of the attractiveness of the body products produced by the heroes of our story. However, if someone thinks differently, speak up. Just keep in mind that facts are stubborn things.

And we intend to further expand the range of parts. And since this enterprise does everything independently, in strict accordance with the standards of the car plant, and also uses the latest technologies, there is no doubt: the quality of Nachalova products will always be identical to the original VAZ ones, and the cost will be significantly lower, which is truly appreciated spare parts market.

So the master mentioned at the beginning of our story grumbled about another “tin.” Not the one produced by Nachalo software.

• Yuri Butsky

second-handbody repair

Application

Car tuning is becoming increasingly popular, so the production of plastic parts for cars is a profitable area of ​​business development. Fiberglass body kits are more of an artisanal method; you can create any shape you want for bumpers, spoilers or handles, but it is impossible to produce products even in small series - this is a one-off production. If serious volumes of production are planned, then it is reasonable to make molds and cast finished products from ABS plastic.

This type of polymer raw material is superior in quality to other types of plastics - it is light in weight and high strength, and can be restored after an impact, unlike fiberglass. Car bumpers often turn into consumables, so the increased strength of the plastic is beneficial to the car owner.