Lotus 50th Party - 12 Sep 98 |
Report |
Factory Tour - Manufacturing | |
LaminatingBody Moulding Shop. Here the Vacuum Assisted Resin Injection (VARI) process is used to produce the body parts for the Esprit and the Elise. Hand laminating using pre-cut fibreglass sheets is also employed, primarily to produce the front and rear mouldings for the Elise. The Body Shop is currently producing 70 Elise and 7 Esprit bodies per week as well as service mouldings with 5 day week, 2 shift working. | |
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 Tool Room. The Tool Room produces the moulds for use in the Body Moulding shop. The Elise front clamshell master pattern is shown right. Thirteen sets have been taken from this master to date. We also saw the master pattern set up for Elise engine cover presently produced in aluminium. The new mould will produce GRP panels for use with the modified rear clamshell. | |
 The Tool Room makes prototype tooling in plaster and glass. The wire armature shown left is taken directly off modelled clay and enables prototype panels to be produced quickly and cheaply prior to production tooling.  Right is cold press tooling designed to produce polyester components using lightweight press moulds manufactured from epoxy tooling We were told that the Tool Room was not busy at present, and personnel had been transferred to the Body Moulding Shop to assist with production. |
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