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Show Kibe cf Conveyers in Ford Plant t " - t ' , J f : " - -- -- . ' . v ", .. i i , , j u .If " . - ! d if ' ' W v ( 1 ' i j- J i - j "- if " i.-j 1 1 Jt M.J f 1 f i r- I i TMs oicture shows two types of conveyors in use in the Rouge Plant of the Ford Motor Company. AN ENDLESS chain conveyor, three anil a half to four mil s long, said to ho the lougest in the world, has just been completed complet-ed at the Rouge Plant of the Ford Motor Company at Dearborn, Michigan. Michi-gan. On it parts of Ford cars in the process of manufacture are transported trans-ported from one building to another and completed parts are carried direct to railroad cars or shipment to branch assembly plants. The conveyor, which carries its cargo on suspended hooks, has a daily capacity for fSOO.fiOO parts weighing over 2,000.01)0 pounds. It supplants freight cars and lruc'.;s which have been used foi the transfer trans-fer of many parts from one point to another in the Ford plan!. This longest conveyor of them all is a development of the Ford policy that nothing should he done by manual labor (hat could belter he 'lone by machine. In the early clays of his manufacturing manu-facturing career, Mr. Ford devised the assembly line a moving track on which cars in the process of assembly as-sembly went to the workmen instead in-stead of the workmen carrying parts to the car. The assembly line, perfected per-fected in many ways, is now used by automobile manufacturers generally. gen-erally. The value of the conveyor in reducing re-ducing physical labor, in saving time, in preserving system and in cutting costs soon became apparent anil its t'.ce was extended to other purposes about the plant. Now there are literally miles of conveyors convey-ors of various types in the Ford plant. Some of them carry parts fro:u one building to another and are carefully synchronized so that the parts arrive at precisely the ris'ii; moment and in the exact spot where they are needed. Others transport red hot ingots of steel weighing nearly a ton each. Still I olliers move outgoing shipments. If it were not for the conveyors, j according to officials of the Ford j Company, mass production would J no! be possible on its present scale. |