VIDEO: Before you weld a Chevrolet Volt, you have to stamp out the bodies

The other day, we pointed you toward a video produced by General Motors that is part of a series on the building of the pre-production Chevy Volt prototypes. That video showed the model's IVER (Integration Vehicle Engineering Release) bodies being assembled, welded and painted in the body shop at the pre-production operations center in Warren MI. However, before you can weld and paint, you have to take sheets of steel and stamp them into the right shapes. It turns out that there were other videos that came ahead the body shop video show this aspect of the Volt's development.

In the stamping shown above, you can see how the engineers go from the mathematical models of the parts to machining the prototype dies. Unlike the production dies, these prototypes are not as tough and are only useful for producing a limited number of parts. Because the steel springs back somewhat after it comes out of the press, the dies don't have the same shape as the final part. As a result, there is often some trial and error in creating them. Once the final die shape is determined, it is scanned and the data is sent to the production tool and die shop. Check out the videos after the jump.

[Source: General Motors]

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The video meant to be presented here is no longer available. Sorry for the inconvenience.