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PLANT ENGINEERS at the new truck-chassis plant called on this helicopter to lift bulky 800 Ib. oven panels to the second floor of the AS YET UNFINISHED but well.on the way to com- pletion the spray bays where fenders and other pieces of bodywork will be painted by hand held spray guns. The jillii" TEETHING PROBLEMS van through the production are an inevitable occurrence in a new plant. The to smooth out new building. The panels were installed in an area al- most inaccessible by normal means. The helicopter took just three days to finish the pieces will pz through on a conveyor. The room is temperature controlled From this bay the pieces will pass into a= drying chamber, The steam heated of. tl onveyor job. The new plant is part of a two. billion dollar expan- sion program by General Motors of Canada. Addition- al new plants are going up room operates at a temper- ature of some 250 degrees The painted pieces make endless loops on a produc- tion conveyor ensuring that they are properly dried The ed. All that remained van lay jammed in the con- and found it. jammed veyor. Ideas were discussed of the new truck here it should have % at St. Therese and at Wind- sor. The new building here in Oshawa covers an im- mense 860,000 square feet. IT IS AT this point in the production line that the com- pleted body work construct- ed in the north plant meet chassis and engine. The bodies drop from a storage possible before production engineers pondered the sub- to put the solution into ef up with the larger begins. Here engineers ran a ject for sometime while the fect, The van pictured here will make up a goodly part Of Two Million Expansion CHRIS DENNETT of The Oshawa Times Staff Some 75 men will start work Monday in General. Motors' mammoth new - truck- chassis works at the south pliant Their work will be to check and add the finishing touches to trucks and vans that pour off the conveyor lines at the north plant's existing truck works By September, however, the men will have been joined by some 400 other work- ers as the new plant swings into serious production for the 1966 truck and van models. The new plant is part of a two billion dollar expansion program promised by General Motors. New plants are also going up at Ste. Therese in Quebee where 'car production will begin at the end of this year, and at Windsor where the finishing touches are being added to a new trim plant Here in Oshawa the new plant covers an immense 860,000 square feet of working space. It takes the best part of three or four minutes to walk the length of the building. MILES OF CONVEYOR Under its: roof are housed several miles of conveyor belts. These will guide a ceaseless tide of new ve les through the plant It is expected the piecing together of a new truck will take just three hours from start to finish. No single part will rest in the storage spaces for more than a day. General Motors has its sights set very firmly on the expanding Canadian truck market A glance a the company's truck and van sales over the last two years proves the point In 1963 truck production topped the 43,- 000 figure. Last year that figure had jumped to 47,000 and GM. executives are expecting a big rise this year In full production the new plant will provide work for some 500 men. Most of these are GM employees.They will merely be shifted from the existing truck works down to the new south plant It is expected that more men will be taken on to bring the new plant up to maximum working strength The truck bodies will continue to be manufactured at the north plant. When finished and painted they will be shipped down to the new south plant by convoys of truck carriers. The bodies will then join the produc- tion line. The progress of each body and chassis will be programmed by teletype. Truck manufacturing, if anything, is more complicated than the building of cars General Motors expects to turn out some 300 different truck models. Buyers are offered thousands of options. Thus each part that enters the produc- tion line has to be 'carefully programmed so that body and chassis meet in the right place The newly arrived bodies, already painted and finished, are fed on to a stor- age conveyor. Moving at a maximum speed of 15- feet-a-minute the line herds the bodies through the plant. At various locations the line is joined by other conveyors where engines, chassis, fenders and other pieces are added The giant new plant is virtually finish- ed. Swarms of workmen are racing against the clock to get the building finished in time Project engineers are running test cars through the conveyor belts to smooth out trouble spots and check that all is working efficiently The parking lots have been laid and the workers' facilities installed Once in full operation some 20 trucks an hour will pour off the finishing lines By far the largest output at the plant will be the small half-ton vans. A conveyor line will be devoted to the sole produc- tion of these vehicles The line is so geared that a huge stor- age of: bodies and chassis can be held in reserve at all times in case of hold ups The conveyor lines are long enough to carry this excess. This, as a GM spokes- man explained, means that if there is a breakdown at the north plant and the sup- ply of bodies stops the south plant can keep production going on its stored parts PLANT SUPERINTEND- ANT Bob Walters checks the the new plant. The air in the new building is changed at regular four times an hour by a line of roof top air puri- fiers. Because they rest on the roof of the building the purifiers are called pent- houses. Heating and cooling in the plant was a subject that engineers devoted a great deal of time to in the design of the plant. Che Oshawa Zines line straight on to the chas- other construction tools still sis and then continue down litter the plant. OSHAWA, ONTARIO, SATURDAY, MAY 29, 1965 hier g baked SEVERAL MILES of con- Production veyor make up the produc- the production line where is planned to begin in time tion lines at the new truck- further additions are made. for the 1966 range of truck chassis plant Illustrated Acetylene equipment and and van models. EPHANTINE chassis protrusions hanging un and a solution was: propos- plant production. The rest of roof of the new plant wa e production wil! be made exhaust extractors trucks and heavy duty vehicles. above is the beginning of the body conveyor. The bodies COR ORE SABES: BRB NBBIO join the line at the end of this line and then move in an never ending procession takes a lengthy loop so that Ses eS RBS z ast LIKE production lines they finish haust pipes are connected from up in this bay where techni- to these extractors so that are cians smooth out any last the fumes the minute faults. If the engines out trucks and vans pour off the have to be started the ex- pipes were a vast number of bodies can be stockpiled. This is an emergency measure to avoid production hold-ups if the supply of bodies from the north plant comes to a halt. safety measure for workers on the line. In ful produc- tion the new plant will be turning out some 20 vehicles an hour.