BMW Motorcycle factory

[CoarsegoldKid]

Short clip. Could have been your bike!

http://www.oobject.com/futuristic-german-car-factories-videos/bmw-motorcycle-factory-berlin/3092/

[Roadwolf]

That is a cool clip... would love to tour that factory some day.

 

Thanks for sharing.

[Semper_Fi]

Very nice - liked the covered paint robot

[gettysburg]

My wife and I took the Berlin factory tour during our trip to Germany in March of '07. On assembly line, we noticed that the "Oil Head" type engines were still being assembled.

 

While there, we also took the automobile factory tours of BMW(in Munich) and Audi(in Ingolstadt). It was an impressive thing to see, but also a bit a of a disappointment when you realize that the U.S. is getting table scraps with regard to the choices that are available in Europe.

[MIST]

Anybody notice that the only guy that didn't have an identifiable full face shot was the one assembling the rear drive unit? And I wonder why the EWS guy didn't even make it into the clip? Could it be these guys fear being identified and personally targeted by the masses of owners who've suffered a FD or EWS failure? Hmmmm....interesting.

 

But seriously, that's a pretty cool video. I'd love to be able to take the tour and definitely will if ever given the opportunity.

 

Mike

 

 

[Wheels Rollin']

Short clip. Could have been your bike!

http://www.oobject.com/futuristic-german-car-factories-videos/bmw-motorcycle-factory-berlin/3092/

Thanks a lot for sharing this, Joe... As always, a fascinating glimpse of manufacturing's current state of the art... What the robots are capable of doing is really something -- their dexterity | range of motion is extraordinary... I wonder what one of 'em would be like to program <>... Can you imagine the required tolerances?

 

I've ridden bicycles on stationary rollers -- seeing the apparent test ride was something... On my bicycles, I maybe hit 25 miles per hour -- once <>... I wonder how fast he was riding 'em... He obviously went up through the gears... Definitely no room for error there <>...

 

~ Bill

 

 

[Green RT]

Nice video. I have been on the tour of that factory too. It is amazing to watch the bikes being assembled on a long U-shaped assembly line. The bikes start at one end of the room where the crank is dropped into a crank case half and the other half is glued and bolted on. Then the engine progresses down one side of the room and back the other side with pieces gradually being added until it arrives at the test ride room located right next door. All the way around the assembly room, the bike is hanging from the ceiling.

 

One of my more distinctive memories of the tour is of the guy who was operating the machine that was putting the two crankcase halves together. He was smoking a cigarette and had about a centimeter of ash hanging on the end of his cigarette as the machine closed the crankcase. I always wondered what the effect of cigarette ash would be in an engine.

 

Incidentally, I also toured the California Motorcycle Company when it was, briefly, building Indian clones in a factory in Holister, California. The contrast could not be greater. I don't rember anything that was automated in the CMC factory.

[John in VA]

He was smoking a cigarette and had about a centimeter of ash hanging on the end of his cigarette as the machine closed the crankcase. I always wondered what the effect of cigarette ash would be in an engine.

 

If his smoldering butt dropped into the crankcase just before closing, I wonder if he'd stop the line.