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Saturday, November 8, 2008

How'd They Build That? Big Truck


Marvelous Media
MSRP $8.99

Grab a front row seat for an amazing tour of Navistar's International Truck Assembly Plant. They have been putting trucks on the road for over 100 years. Having made over five million trucks to date, they certainly know their business. Take a behind-the-scenes look at this remarkable plant.

We start in the mammoth Cab Stamping and Assembly area, which spans fifteen indoor acres. There is a mix of humans and robots working here, building one cab every two minutes. This is a busy area, where the stamping presses go up and down over a million times in one year. After the cabs are stamped, they move onto the Intelligent Body Assembly System, where the different parts of the cab are put together. Every cab must have the same dimensions within one millimeter, which is the thickness of a pencil lead.

Next up: the Paint Facility, which accounts for ten acres under one roof. Cabs are cleaned, dipped, primed and then painted by robots. Spray bot robots use two gallons of paint per cab. There are 7,000 colors, but 80% of trucks ordered by customers are white. The trucks move right on down the line, where the rest of the truck is assembled. This entire assembly process is fascinating and the narrator does an excellent job of explaining each step. Although the DVDs are recommended for ages 4 and up, older children will be just as engrossed. The video is full of interesting tidbits and the action zips right along. Definitely recommended for any truck lover!

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