BIW tooling package for an electric model — 65 fixture sets across 29 stations
Body-in-white welding tooling for a new electric model at a passenger-car assembly plant in western Russia: 65 fixture sets over 29 stations — engine compartment, floor frame, body-side, door assemblies, roof cross-members, luggage sub-assemblies and four main-framing stations. The plant supplied its own arc-welding robots, positioners, welding sets, fume extraction and fencing; we supplied every fixture, hanger, shared base plate and the control interface, pre-assembled and inspected in China before shipment. Signed August 2024.
The problem the customer brought
The plant had robots, welding equipment and floor space, and a new model it could not build: the tooling it owned held the old body. Buying a new line was neither affordable nor necessary.
Workpiece
Electric passenger car body in white — engine compartment sub-assemblies, floor frame with cross-members, body-side, front doors and window frames, roof cross-members, luggage compartment, and the main body framing.
Robots
None supplied. The plant's own arc-welding robots, three-axis positioners, robot bases, welding sets, fume hoods and safety fencing stayed in scope on its side.
Process and equipment
65 welding and assembly fixture sets over 29 stations (sub-assembly stations SB02–SB26 and main framing MB10–MB40), including robot-loaded fixtures on the body-side, door and shock-tower stations, shared base plates for small sub-assemblies, hangers, and the station control that sequences the clamps and interfaces to the plant's robots.
Pre-integration and factory acceptance test
Fixtures pre-assembled in the builder's workshop; key fixtures measured on a coordinate measuring machine against the drawing, with the report shipped with the tooling. Installation datums set on site with a laser tracker.
Delivery and site work
Packed and shipped by sea with packing list, container loading plan and full export documents; our engineers on site for installation, setting to datums and commissioning.
Commercial terms
Itemised per station, so the plant could see the cost of each fixture and phase the scope. Sea freight to the plant. Prices are not published.
Shipping terms on current projects: EXW, FOB, CIF or DAP. Customer names, plant locations and prices are not published.
Result
Delivered. The same plant came back about eighteen months later with a second model — see the next project.
What we do differently because of this project
Every body-shop quotation is itemised per station rather than given as a lump sum. It is slower to prepare and it is the reason the customer could compare, argue and then repeat the order.
Photographs from this project
Customer names, plant identification and location watermarks are removed. Captions state where an image is a general illustration rather than this customer's plant.
