458 ITALIA. WE BUILT IT
After we’ve discovered what is done at the foundry, here in Maranello we’re now having a look at the mechanical works. The casted cylinder blocks and the cylinder heads have to be prepared for assembly. Technology and quality are of immense importance.
The Mechanical Workshop
The mechanical workshop is testament to the success of the Formula Uomo project – a programme that ensures the staff at Maranello have the best production facilities available. Inside, it is a long way from the dirty and noisy workshops of the past. Light, air conditioning, humidity control plus minimal noise and clinical cleanliness are the conditions in which the technicians operate – their job to transform the castings into components intended for assembly on the car.
I am entrusted to the technicians who will work on the two cylinder heads of our V8. The first stage, using automatic high-precision machines under continuous control, consists of the so-called roughing-out. The front and rear side and the side that will accommodate the cam cover are smoothed. The machine carries out the milling and drilling operations automatically. At this stage nothing is done by hand, not even the magnetic insertion of the valve guides and seats using the thermal interference technique.
Here two robots – called Romeo and Juliet, given the complementary nature of the operations that they carry out – insert steel seats and guides (cooled to -196 degrees at the minimum dilation) into the head (which is heated to +180 degrees at the maximum dilation). The two components eventually unite and, on returning to room temperature, become solid without the need for any further operation. It was interesting to see that each component is photographed and scanned by a machine that, if it detects even the slightest defect in shape, rejects it immediately.
Although I am in a high technology workshop, manual operations have certainly not been abolished. As we used to do as kids, when we dismantled the engine of our car or motorbike to polish the ports and get a bit more horsepower, here accurate finishing work on the crankshafts and the camshafts is carried out by hand. As if this were not enough, the components pass through the metrological room – where the environmental conditions are identical throughout the year – for the final compliance checks.
Published on The Official Ferrari Magazine issue 7, December 2009
PUBLISHED IN CARS, HOME BY ANTONIO GHINI ON 07.12.2011
Credit: Ferrari S.p.A. (www.ferrari.com)
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