Have you ever wondered how a truck really works?
How it's built? How it's developed? Let us show you.
This is 'Truck's Anatomy'.
I'm feeling a bit nostalgic, sitting here making my own tin soldiers.
It's a fairly easy process,
where the secret to success lies in the preparation of the mould.
However, we are here to talk about bigger things.
The process of casting engine parts
here at the diesel engine manufacturing plant in Skövde, Sweden,
is based on the same principles. The Volvo Group Trucks Operations' site
for manufacturing heavy-duty diesel engines, covers 265,000 m².
In 2012, they produced approximately 72,000 engines.
The site houses two foundries: G1 and G2.
The G2 is a state-of-the-art facility where the casting process
has been refined and its environmental impact reduced.
Water is used to cool down the casting mould,
which speeds up the solidification process and makes the iron stronger.
The water is then recycled. About 50 % of the energy generated
from the casting process, is reused for heating.
85 % of the sand from the mould is also recycled,
which means that the G2 foundry has a very high recovery rate
by international standards.
Before the casting process, the mould has to be assembled.
Here, the core package for the cylinder head is glued together by robots.
They perform the job with millimetre precision.
It is then coated with a refractory fluid called black wash,
making the surface flawless. The core package is then put together,
making the mould complete for the final step: the casting.
All the parts that leave the casting need to be machined.
The machining process is highly automated and consists of several steps.
And it's under constant monitoring by advanced measuring systems
that measure accuracies by a thousandth of a millimetre.
The plant in Skövde machines cylinder heads, engine blocks,
cranks and camshafts, flywheels and gears.
In the assembly plant, the engine is starting to come together.
Here, the camshaft is being assembled to the cylinder head.
This particular engine is a D13.
A 13-litre 6-cylinder 24-valve diesel engine.
This model represents the heart of more than a third of all the trucks
from Volvo Trucks.
All engines manufactured today meet strict environmental requirements.
The Euro 6 engine, with selective catalytic reduction, SCR,
exhaust gas recirculation, EGR, and a diesel particulate filter, DPF,
reduces nitrogen oxide emissions by 77 %
and particulate emissions by 50 %, compared with the Euro 5.
In there, behind the windows, the engine springs into life for its first time.
The test lasts about two minutes.
It's run without liquid in its cooling system.
During those two minutes, nine important parameters
are monitored, measured and saved.
For example, turbo pressure, sound and the rpm are monitored closely.
When the engine passes all nine parameters,
it's moved to the paint shop – the last step in the manufacturing process.
This freshly painted engine is now going to be shipped
to the Tuve assembly plant in Gothenburg, Sweden.
It will be installed into a brand new FH truck,
where it will stay for hundreds and thousands of kilometres.
Remember this? This is my creation of the day.
I'm going home to hone my skills in tin casting, because I know how by now.
See you in the next episode of 'Truck's Anatomy'.