r/machinesinaction • u/Bodzio1981 • 13d ago

Car Factory Robots

Automatic Welding Body Shop, will we lost out jobs some day?

2.1k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

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23

u/SenatorAdamSpliff 13d ago

50 years ago it was some guy doing the welds. Maybe he didn’t sleep well. Maybe he was hungover. Maybe he was disgruntled.

Remember that when people say cars were built better back then.

17

u/kinga_forrester 13d ago

People are clueless, mechanics used to find empty beer cans and other trash inside doors and dashboards from the workers on the line.

6

u/Mercury_Madulller 13d ago

It's more about the materials. Thinner gauges of metal, more plastics, smaller and thinner castings. Almost everything has been cheapened in a modern car. It's not without any benefit though. Lighter cars get better fuel economy for instance. Using the rigidity and strength of stamped steel sheets also allows for both a lighter car that also has built-in crumple zones. Cars are better now but I wouldn't say they're necessarily more durable or reliable unless you're comparing a 2026 to a model A. There was a series of trade-offs as vehicle designs matured. I would say durability and reliability probably peeked in the '90s-early 2000s. Safety and economy continue to get better.

3

u/SkeletalJam 13d ago

Look up crash tests old vs new and tell me an older car is more rigid or durable

4

u/SpiritedRain247 13d ago

They were and that's a problem. The more rigid designs transferred energy in a crash not throughout the vehicle but towards the occupants.

I'm fine with them being crushed during a crash because that's the car doing it's job. What I don't like is how some stuff just falls apart with time. For instance jeep had an issue with their dashboards at one point that caused the fake letter on top to wrinkle and look like shit. Also they have an issue with radios delaminating and then becoming unusable.

2

u/SenatorAdamSpliff 13d ago

They weren’t rigid due to thicker materials. They were resistant to deformation due to a design that resisted deformation.

We could make cars like that today. But we dont, because it’s unsafe.

1

u/Zealousideal-Fix9464 12d ago

They were more durable. But durability doesn't help you in a crash unless you have a 5 point harness and HANS device.

1

u/ThisWillTakeAllDay 13d ago

But the steel was thicker.