This investment also supports upgrades to the existing assembly line for the 2,0-litre Single Turbo and 2,0-litreL Bi-Turbo diesel engines.
“The R600-million investment in the Struandale Engine Plant is part of our commitment to modernising and growing our local operations and is over and above the R15,8-billion investment in the Silverton Assembly Plant and supplier tooling that we announced in February this year to support production of the next-generation Ranger,” says Ockert Berry, VP Operations, Ford South Africa.
Third engine for Struandale
“Through this investment we are introducing a third diesel engine to the Struandale operations, in the form of the new V6 turbo-diesel engine that will power selected next-gen Ranger models when production commences next year,” Berry says. “The majority of the investment is going into expanding and modernising the current assembly line that has produced the existing 2.2L and 3.2L Duratorq TDCi engines since 2011, with 792 000 engines assembled to date.”
The extensive changes to this assembly line will enable the Struandale Engine Plant to run a flexible format, as it will produce the new 3.0L V6 turbo-diesel engine alongside the Duratorq TDCi engines. There are 40 stations on the line that will be common to both engines, with a further 25 stations unique to the 3.0L V6.
On demand capacity
The plant will have an annual installed capacity of 21 000 units of the 3.0L V6 turbo-diesel engine when production commences in the middle of next year. The combined installed capacity for this line is 130 000 engines per year, although it has been designed to allow the split between the two engine programs to be adjusted based on future demand.
“We are introducing Ford’s state-of-the-art production technologies, such as the latest tooling along with advanced camera and transponder systems that are fully integrated into Ford’s global Quality Management System, as used in our modern assembly line for the 2.0L Single Turbo and 2.0L Bi-Turbo engines,” Berry says. “This allows us to record and validate every step of the assembly operations to capture the entire birth history of each engine. This is an essential part of ensuring that we deliver world-class quality for our customers around the world.”
Retooling, upgrading and redeployment
In addition to the assembly operations, the Struandale Engine Plant will also be responsible for machining the cylinder heads for the 3.0L V6 diesel engine.
“The investment program includes new equipment as well as retooling, upgrading and redeployment of existing machining operations for the cylinder head,” Berry adds. “The machining line has an initial installed capacity of 42 000 cylinder heads per year for the V6 engine, but has also been designed to accommodate higher volumes in future, if necessary.
“Furthermore, the updates being introduced on the 2,0-litre assembly line will see additional derivatives of the 2,0-litre diesel engines being introduced, increasing the current nine derivatives to 13 when production commences for the Ranger in 2022,” Berry adds.
