[khan_sultan]

After the tyres, it's time for the XJ's interiors to be taken care of. In go the plush seats:




All dressed up, the XJ will have its first taste of oils & fluids. This is like giving a child the first drop of water...a very important moment in the life of the vehicle. Nannies, errr machines, come and feed the XJ:




Of course there are some parts that are made in China. How can you be at a manufacturing line and not see a "Made in China" tag? The various chrome embellishments that will go into the vehicle:

[khan_sultan]

The doors are still not installed. This is done at the end, to allow workers / robots easy access to the car. The XJ is equipped with a Bower Wilkins audio system:


The smaller, space saver spare:


The XJ is fully kitted out and ready for final tests. The extensive testing takes place at the VCATS station:

[khan_sultan]

Final inspection:


Then driven away...


...to the yard and ready for shipment. Now you know how the XJ is created, right from the aluminium sheets to final assembly:

[khan_sultan]

Next on the schedule is a session with Mark White - Chief Technical Specialist for Light Weight Body Structures at Jaguar. We arrive in a large room where a cut out of the XK is parked. This section shows the different materials used in the construction of the body structure. The silver being aluminium, the different shades of green being alloys, and the black being magnesium:


Mark White is hugely passionate about his subject area. He has worked at Jaguar for all of his professional life and is a self confessed Jaguar & Lotus enthusiast. He's had posters of Jaguar since the childhood days, and wanted to work here only. It is said that if Mark doesn't know the answers to light weight body structures, probably no one else does either:


Some of the key takeaways from his presentation were:

- The '03 XJ was the first volume-production car to use an all-aluminium monocoque chassis
- There's no difference in quality between new and recycled aluminium
- At the end of the XJ's life, nearly 100% of its aluminium is recyclable
- The XJ body structure weighs 150 kgs lesser than the comparable steel body of competing vehicles
- The XJ body structure weighs approximately the same as that of a Mini



Here is the presentation that he used. If you are into automotive structures, you might find it useful:
CB Mark White Aluminium Presentation.pdf

The factory still has the markings of RAF. See the drain pipe; the topmost part has RAF stampings, remnants of the days when aircrafts were built here:

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Technical Section. Thanks for sharing!

[Neel]

Awesome, pics complement the write up very well.
Was hoping to see more on the engine assembly and variants.

[mycarhasablower]

Officially my favourite thread on team bhp. Ill keep coming back to go through this thread again and again for quite some time.
most of us have visited an automobile plant at some point , but to gain access to info on the most current and advanced practices in the automobile industry is something

[rtandon]

khan_sultan, awesome thread.
One question on the paint shop. Do they use an electrolytic process to coat aluminum?
What metal/alloy do they use? Not sure if the answer is a trade secret.
"MIG/TIG". So many memoies came back. Last I read about that was in college.

[khan_sultan]

Originally Posted by Neel

Awesome, pics complement the write up very well.

Originally Posted by mycarhasablower

Officially my favourite thread on team bhp.

Originally Posted by rtandon

khan_sultan, awesome thread.

Thanks guys. I enjoyed writing this one and enjoyed every bit of the factory tour.

Was hoping to see more on the engine assembly and variants.

How I wish we could have seen that also. Unfortunately, as I mentioned in the report also, the engines are manufactured in a FORD factory somewhere else.

to gain access to info on the most current and advanced practices in the automobile industry is something

Agree. The manufacturing process of these wonderful machines was an eye opener for me.

One question on the paint shop. Do they use an electrolytic process to coat aluminum?
What metal/alloy do they use? Not sure if the answer is a trade secret.

We didn't see the paint shop hence don't have information about the process. The alloys used are different varieties of custom spec alloys. Most of the aluminum based alloys are sourced from Aditya Birla group. Actually, if you go through the attached presentation from Mark White, you can read up on the details of the alloys used.

Link to Presentation

[SmartCat]

Is the paint shop within the factory premises or are the cars painted elsewhere and brought back to the factory?

Originally Posted by khan_sultan

Cut section of the XJ body. Notice how shiny the aluminium is. We asked if a customer can order this finish, but the answer was in the negative. If someone from the Middle East sees this, he'd have probably placed an order for a dozen right then and there:

That's because sunlight reflecting on the body will be hazardous to other road users.

[shobhit]

Originally Posted by khan_sultan

The XJ is fully kitted out and ready for final tests. The extensive testing takes place at the VCATS station:
Attachment 926402

Absolutely captivating; thanks for an elaborate coverage !
What does the testing include ? I remember from Ferrari's Megafactory show coverage, that is a 20 mile test run of each vehicle at in-house test tracks, subsequent to a rigorous tests on a dyno. Is track testing a part of JLR's process ?

Secondly, did the discussion on lightweight structures touch upon composites, or was it restricted to alloys and aluminium ?

[Blow Horn Ok]

Thanks for posting the most detailed production story of a great Car. I was glued to this for an hour! Now I am sure that the Jaguar is one of the pioneers of light weight body construction. What about their efforts of reducing weight and emissions of the engine? Now after this post I know they use Ford's facility but please provide more details of the engine and transmission. Also please post details of the paint booth section if you have.

[getsurya]

Hi Khan,

Great report there! Awesome!!

Truly enticing and glued was I, for reading it through. Thank you for sharing and the journey.

[Concorde]

Thanks a lot khan_sultan for the wonderful thread and team-bhp moderators and support for creating and maintaining this amazing site. The experience of its valuable members, unbiased, in-depth reviews and the diverse areas t-bhp covers has made it one of the most respected forums in the world which is evident from the number of invites it receives for various events. Hope to see more of these.

[LP640]

Finally an aluminium production facility! Never imagined that working with aluminium would be so different. No spot welding or seams, just rivets and glue!
It really is a brave step to move to aluminium from steel. And Jaguar seems to have mastered it!