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18 February 2019 | AutoData MANUFACTURERS » SCANIA The final and critical training phase ha- ppened in December, when three NTGs started to be daily assembled even with the PGR trucks production. In all, 235 units of the new family were manufactured in pre-series, but before that, more than 1 thousand cabins of the new trucks were also produced to validate the vehicles and its processes. IN THE FACTORY Of the total invested, R$ 340millionwere just to build a new laserwelding unit for the cabins, in nineteen variations - there were only seven in the previous family. The area of 13 thousandm2 houses 75 robots in total, responsible for the whole process. Scania ensures that it is the only truck manufac- turer in Brazil to carry out the laserwelding process in 100% of its cabins and the tech- nology, according to the company, raises the quality of the seal and the structural resistance, besides ensuring perfect and necessary geometry so one of the new truck’s characteristic, the best aerodynamic index, which alone reduces fuel consump- tion by 2%, is actually achieved. For Podgorski, that unit “is one of the most modern existing in Brazil today”: there is a new measuring cell, with an optical system that digitally evaluates the cabins produced in each of its millimeter fractions –a technology not yet available even in the Swedish headquarters. The production capacity is 25 thousand cabins/year. The factory has also gained a structure for sealing test, which confirms if there is not any infiltration point in the cabin. The water content to bathe the trucks is so high that, according to the president, “would represent a flood of great proportions if it occurred in nature”. Still in October 2016, as part of theNTG’s production preparation process, an area pompously named as AppearenceAppro- val Report & Matching was inaugurated, where all external and internal items invol- ving the appearance of the cabins, such as texture, depth , brightness and color. Seven hundred parts of plastic and metal are checked. The area that least needed updatingwas painting: the current one, built fromscratch, was inaugurated in 2015 and since then, it already had a lot of automated processes - it consumes 40% less paint than the old one, for example. It is natural that most of the attention has been reserved to the assembly line. Podgorski sees that this was the most ou- tdated area of the complex in Sao Bernar- do do Campo and is now one of the most modern: “The remodeling was complete”. Highlight for the complete automation processes of stickering and windshield installation. There and in the other productive are- as of the factory, which also include the production of chassis, engines and trans- missions, therewas a lot of ITwork to inte- grate not only the machinery of the whole complex but also the computer systems to the new standards demanded by the NTG trucks, based on the precepts of Industry 4.0. As Podgorski says that “it is an invisible work, it can only be noticed if it does not work”. SO MUCH DIFFERENT Christopher Podgorski, president of Scania Latin America: only the facade of the administrative building at the unit in Sao Bernardo do Campo remained unaltered. As for the manufacturing area...