Shells Roll Out From Oldsmobile Factory

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 13056, 26 January 1943, Page 3

Shells Roll Out From Oldsmobile Factory

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Lansing, Mich., Aug. 10. ,1 of qtpel rolls steadily forward under a knife that shears a long r 0" i i.-Pf] lengths at the rate of several dozens a minute —"as fast it on" ~ „ „ wor kman explains—and the volume productions of ~-p ran ieeu Wi r vying size for use in farflung war.areas is under way. shells of va plants of General Motors' Oldsmobile DiviThe scene is m «« c h become one or the great ordnance-producing factories of the siontia i -„<r nnt onlv shells but guns to fire them from tank-turrets world, making noL . -

„, oproplane wings. -olume of shells rolling out of the plant is a military secret, but 1 gaid t i ie total runs into multiple thousands daily. Speeding up U ,tis a conveyor system that spreads, over almost every.inch of 1116 °i H section of the plant. There are miles of conveyors equipped S 11 cup-shaped devices that hold four or six shells, at a time, ff ' - 1 - b the cold-cut lengths from one stage of machining to another.. m ° V Conve yors stretch the length of the plant with spurs that turn - to the right and left to take the embryo shells to electric furn--3 ieat-treating tanks, milling machines, broaching and threading stain d dozens of other operations incident to converting a piece of rough metal into an explosive shell. Co-ordinated Plow

It looks like tremendous confusion, but it comes to a co-ordinated • at the end of the final assembly line and inspection station where •erv shell is examined critically before being passd along rollers to an tomatic packing device. Here the shells are placed in cartons whose is folded and sealed automatically and delivered to the point where the Government accepts delivery in a waiting freight car. On the side of the freight car is a sign forbidding admittance to any but Ordnance Department workers. You ask one of the guards on duty why the cartons are packed only two deep on the car floor. "Weight," he replies tersely.

Aside from the fashioning and heat treating of the body of the shell, there are the nose pieces produced in another section of the plant and delivered on the conveyors to the point of assembly. # One of the move complicated pieces of production machinery is a broad, flat, oscillating table that operates directly in front of a furnace and over an oil-quenching tank. On the table the shells are lined up in rows. Its operation timed to the second, the table moves forward.as the furnace doors open. About a dozen shells in a row are dropped into the furnace for treating. In a few moments the furnace door opens again, tae tal) le end moves into the flame and recovers a dozen shells. Shells Are Tempered Moving backward again, the device tips the end row of heated shells U P and drops them into the oil for the tempering stage of the treating operation. Another fast-working mechanism is a rotary device used in giving th & shells a protective coating of paint. The shell is held upright on a spin(lle and capped with a temporary disc as it moves into the paintspray area. The paint dries to the point where the shells can ■thin 40 seconds after emerging from the spray. Painting is done over a ho ° de d tank of water, so that considerable paint salvaging is possible. "We skim it off the top of the water and use it again," a worker explained. Similarly an under-the-floor conveyor system salvages curlings from e s nells and gun-machining operations. Except for huge presses hammering out parts for bomber plane lng gears . there i s nothing about the operating units of the plant to eCaU the automobile engine factory of last year. In a yard outside, however, is a spot with S,OOO automobile chassis rames pile d in neat rows. It was a week's supply prior to Pearl Harbour.