The birthplace of Corolla Cross, explore the true level of Taiwan's automobile manufacturing, how big is the gap?

Here is an introduction to Taiwan Guorui Automobile. The time point is back to the era of Taiwan's economic take-off in 1980 (the period of the Four Asian Tigers). In order to develop heavy industry in Taiwan, an important step is to develop its own. In the automobile industry, local government departments took the lead in establishing a joint venture with General Motors, Huatong Automobile. However, the good times did not last long. Three years later, General Motors withdrew its investment, and the local government had to find investors again. At that time, Hotai and Hino Group proposed to the government Related technology transfer and talent training plans gave the two major groups the opportunity to establish Guorui Automobile. They also took over the Zhongli factory area (the northern center of Taoyuan City) left by Huatong Company and became the Guorui Automobile we see now. Automobile production base.

The current Zhongli factory can be said to be the breeding base of legendary cars, because the best-selling Altis and Corolla Cross were both born here. The two models can produce about 350 units per day. It is more than enough to cope with the average monthly sales of 2 to 3,000 units of a single car model, and there is even enough room to absorb overseas orders; in addition, the Zhongli factory has not yet established a R&D and production technology center. The familiar Corolla Altis, Weizhi, Wish and now Sienta, Altis GR Sport and Corolla Cross are all designed by the local R&D team. Even the overseas Ralink, Veranda and Fortuner are also designed by the Taiwanese engineering team. In fact, they are no less than the Japanese parent factory. Due to their performance Feiran also makes Guorui Automobile the only one among Toyota's many overseas factories with development capabilities. (I don’t know if this is bragging)

The production technology center is an important unit that introduces the technology and equipment of the Japanese parent factory into the production line, and plans the most efficient production line in line with Taiwan’s small and diverse market structure. At the same time, it can also produce mold development capabilities, including stamping molds, stamping machines, welding jigs and even automation equipment for the production line. They are all developed and manufactured by the production center, and are even exported to countries around the world. Even Lexus has a case of using Guorui designed machines. , and the domestic spare parts rate of the models produced by Guorui has reached 75%, thereby promoting business opportunities in related industrial chains and promoting the development of Taiwan's automobile industry. At the same time, in order to achieve the fastest communication efficiency with the Japanese parent factory, regardless of R&D Both the department and the production department supervisor have a certain level of Japanese proficiency, so it is not surprising to see many slogans in Japanese in the factory area.

What consumers are most concerned about is whether the quality of the cars they buy are made in Taiwan is different from those made in Japan. Therefore, Guorui opened a production line that has not been disclosed for 36 years for the media to take a closer look. The production equipment and processes of each company are similar. Quality requirements are usually the biggest key to determining the evaluation of a vehicle in the market and even the price of second-hand cars many years later. The Guorui Zhongli factory is divided into two areas. The first manufacturing department is responsible for the steel rolling factory through stamping, body engineering, forming engineering, and painting engineering. When you step into the production plant, you can see the products that are ready to be produced today. The steel coils have been placed on the side, and as much material as the production quantity is used, the steel produced on the production line must be the freshest delivered on the same day, replacing the fact that it has been hardened for a long time. This can also ensure the quality of materials from different suppliers. All can be maintained at their best.

After the stamping process is completed, it comes to the body engineering stage. After this, the sheet metal parts are welded. On TV, you can see the scene of sparks bursting out from the robotic arm welding the sheet metal parts. It is here that the painting is completed. The glue is also bonded here to ensure that each step can achieve the most consistent state. Corolla Cross uses the latest laser welding technology, with 3,700 alternate welding spots to maintain stronger body rigidity. It is also a Toyota With the largest number of cars, quality inspection personnel will also conduct random inspections of solder joints from time to time to ensure that the welding electrode will not cause insufficient solder joint strength due to overuse. The welded sheet metal will ultimately be determined by the quality inspection personnel. Check whether there are any defects on the surface through visual and tactile methods. On that day, there were door sheet metal parts with surface defects on site to try to let the media catch the defects. No matter how you look and touch, it is not easy to detect. It is no wonder that the final inspection personnel need to be trained for more than 10 years. It takes a year to actually go to the battlefield.

The formed car body is handed over to the second manufacturing department for parts assembly. After that, the process of assembling instruments, assembling seats and interior panels, joining the engine and gearbox, and combining the power system and the car body are seen. , on the assembly line, it was found that the locations that are prone to collisions during the process are all separated by pink protective panels to avoid unnecessary collisions that may cause scratches and dents on the car body. Each car has different optional items. Full-time tallies select accessories for different models and then send them to the responsible assemblers. Joint accessories such as power systems or braking systems are sent to the assemblers by automatic transport trolleys.

The Japanese parent factory will send people to overseas factories every year to conduct quality inspection operations. They will conduct inspections on drawing accuracy, drawing quality, and actual vehicle running. Within two weeks, 20 vehicles will be randomly inspected. The 2-hour inspection of each vehicle covers more than a thousand items. The Guorui factory has had no defects in the small car project for three consecutive years, and Hino has had no defects for four consecutive years.

Toyota has not only Guorui and Hotai in Taiwan. The car manufacturing technology is basically the same as that in mainland China, but it is very capable of bragging. The power basically maintains the originality of Japanese cars, and there are few locals. We have made great improvements, but we are indeed very strict in terms of quality control, which is worth learning from!

This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.