Mechanical Technology

Mechanical Technology — July 2015

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Special report

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is being exported in left- and right-hand

drive versions to countries on every con-

tinent of the world.

East London is one of four plants in

the world producing the C-Class, the

others being: Tuscaloosa in the USA,

Bremen in Germany and Beijing in China.

“The story of the C-Class, since the

W202 came off the line 21 years ago,

has become one of pride and success,

not only for MBSA but also for the

Buffalo City Metro Municipality and for

the Eastern Cape. The first ever exports

of C180s from South Africa were loaded

for Australia on Sunday November 15,

1997, beginning MBSA’s ‘Out of Africa,

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for the World’ success story,” says Van

der Merwe.

Decades of technology advances

The C-Class production history at the

East London plant is a story of steady

technological advances, which today,

with its new state-of-the-art W205 pro-

duction line, place MBSA at the forefront

of production technology, not only in

South Africa, but also in the world.

For the W202 in 1994 a new semi-

automated welding line made use of

special turnover devices (STODS), to

make the final welding process more

operator-friendly. The technology on that

line also included a Steifelmeyer measur-

ing machine to check body accuracy.

With the arrival of the W203 C-Class

in 2000, a new water-based paint shop

with climate control was put in place as

well as a new body shop with the latest

computer-aided clamping, welding robots

and laser in-line measuring stations.

For the W204 in 2007 specialised

robots implemented new technologies

such as laser welding and brazing, high-

strength steel welding and structural glu-

ing. The C-hanger system implemented

The cutting-edge production technologies linked to the new C-Class include components and processes

such as aluminium skin panels, complex laser welding, roll forming for complex structural profiles,

advanced rear axle carriage assemblies, aluminium pre-treatment and natural fibre pressings.