ALMOST HUMAN.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19735, 27 September 1929, Page 5

ALMOST HUMAN.

DEVICES USED IN BIILDING A MOTOR-CAB. "Many almost human devioes have /*4en d»>Toloj.«*J in the complex work of building a motor-car,'* says Mr W. MeHardy Forman, managing director •t General Motors, New Zealand, limited. **Twq new ones, the piston milling •wehine and a cylinder honing «a~ ehidt, are so uncannily accurate and methodical as to give the impression oc • 'brain' concealed somewhere tn tnei Ulterior* "The piston machine, one of tue new•st in the industry, furthers th* impression of having t ecn oon-tructed duplicate the w >rk of the human em,n the factory by it* two arms,' each with 'fingers' whicn are "» cJu-ij features. • i "Pistons in the rough are carrier through the machine ana turned oat than a minute, complete except 10

one or two minor operations. Contradicting the old axiom, each 'arm' is eo synchronised as seemingly to know exactly what the other is doing. "As one 'arm* reaches up that the fire 'fingers' may grasp a piston in the rough, the other reaches down to seize the one which has had its time on the machine. As th© latter is lifted up on the opposite side of the machine, a rough casting is brought down and anchored firmly into place for milling and cutting. "The 'arms' and 'fingers are actuated by compressed air. One of the difficulties that had to be overcome in construction was to get the 'fingers' to release the pistons at exacilv the right moment. Seventy-one pistons pass through the machine each hour. 'The cylin'der honing machine does n delicate job which formerly required the work of twelve men. and its operation »s precise and exact. So accurate is the marline that it stops automatically when the hon'na cylinder has reached the point of .001 of an inch in diameter. "Another interestiuar machine in operation in t.hg industry here is a multiple spindle drill, which bores 116 bole* in a cylinder block at one opera* tion and requires only one operator."