has 10 million in the purchased number
series to use, however.
While highly exible, in terms of scheduling
work for the line Fotheringhame says: “What
we’ve learned is that if we try and batch
orders of the same family – maybe a different
colour or different works order but the same
family – we can just put them on it very easily
on the back of the previous order, without
even having to change xture. So, it’s about
planning for the line, really.”
The workstations are balanced, with
consistency of cycle time across each part
number. At full rate, up to ve people would
be working on the line, with a further two
more in support roles. Output capability is
1,000 assemblies/week across two shifts.
In future, screens will be tted to the new
assembly line that will display real time data
drawn from the central supervising computer,
giving visibility of performance to line
operators and any other networked
individuals. Already tted is an Andon light
system, as with existing manual cells, with
these lit to indicate a maintenance-,
production- or quality-related issue and
sending a signal to a central management
system. A manual event in the cells, light
triggering will be automatic for the line. Time
from light on to light off (problem xed) is
measured, supporting KPI measures.
Serving a demanding environment,
AP Racing is clearly stepping up to deliver
premium performance and quality from its
leading-edge assembly line installation.
AUTOMOTIVE SECTOR NICHE OPERATOR AUTOMATES ASSEMBLY
1920 – Company founded as Automotive Products (AP) by Edward
Boughton, Willie Emmott & Denis Brock, importing components for
ex-military vehicles
1928 – Acquired a licence for the manufacture & sale of Lockheed
Hydraulic Braking System, forming the subsidiary company Lockheed
Hydraulic Brake Company signalling the start of brake manufacture
1931 – Under the Borg&Beck brand, AP started to make clutches.In
the same year, the rst block of the company’s Tachbrook Road,
Leamington Spa plant was opened
1938 – Italian racing legend Tazio Giorgio Nuvolari, driving an Auto
Union tted with AP Lockheed hydraulic brake, wins the British
Grand Prix. Nuvolari’s victories took in 72 major races, 150 in all
1956 – AP supplied an astonishing 50% of the brakes made in the
UK and 85% of the clutches
1958 – 10 million clutch assemblies produced by Borg&Beck
division at the Leamington Spa plant
1962 – AP developed the four-speed automatic transmission. When
revealed at the 1965 Earls Court Motor Show, it caused quite a stir
throughout the motoring world. This was considered by many to be
the most outstanding technical development in the 70-year history
of the British motor industry at the time. Not merely an enviable
achievement for design and development, but also a complete
breakthrough in volume production engineering and assembly
techniques
1967 – Automotive Products (AP) creates Competition Products (CP)
Division, to deal with motorsport and performance enquiries
1967 – Competition Product Division’s rst Grand Prix clutch victory
took place at the 1967 Dutch GP at Zandvoort, in a Lotus driven by
the UK’s Jim Clark
1970 – Automotive Products re-brands Competition Products to AP
Racing
1975 – First outboard caliper used in F1 – CP2561 balance braking
1983 – Produces the very rst 7¼” diameter (184 mm), F1 carbon
clutch
1985 – Sells the rst 140 mm diameter (5½”) carbon clutch
CP3418 to Williams GP
1986 – Company’s 7¼” diameter clutches win Design Council
Award; Automotive Products bought by the BBA Group
1989 – Very rst OEM road car project – Lotus Carlton brakes
1990 – Moves from the Leamington Spa site to a purpose-built
6,600 m factory in Coventry – of cially opened 6 March 1991 by
the Duke of Kent
1993 – First to introduce a range of internally liquid-cooled calipers
for Nascar and Touring Car and Rally applications
1999 – BMW Le Mans victory using AP disc brakes and pads. It was
the rst time that no disc and pad changes were required during the
24-hour race
2000 – AP Racing Division bought by Italy’s Brembo
2001 – First pedal box designed and added to hydraulic actuation
range
2006 – Supplied the braking system to the World Record holding
JCB Dieselmax. The braking system was designed to slow the
vehicle down from 200 to 0 mph
2007 – Launches Radi-CAL&trade. Manufactured for F3, it broke
from traditional design concepts, allowing AP Racing to lead the way
in brake caliper design and manufacture, producing over 90 different
variants to date for a cross section of motorsport, OEM and
Performance road categories
2012 – Supplies the very rst forged OEM calipers into the global
automotive market, tted to HSV’s Gen F platform
2013 – First HPK Forged Radi-CAL&trade caliper added to its
upgrade product range
2014 – 750th GP success at the Chinese GP, won by Lewis Hamilton
in a Mercedes
2014 – Launches latest range of Forged Radi-CAL&trade brake
calipers, PRO 5000 R, at the SEMA (Las Vegas) and PMWE (KÖLN)
Shows
2016 – Introduces WR2, Generation 2 Forged HPK Radi-CAL calipers
to its upgrade product range
Full history at: https://is.gd/udehor
AP Racing – a name with history
Outside of the
semi-automated assembly line, the
process is more manual and based around
work cells. This will continue to support
the lower volumes and high fl exibility for
which AP Racing is known
24 April 2020 | www.machinery.co.uk | MachineryMagazine | @MachineryTweets
/udehor
/www.machinery.co.uk