Editor in Chief Mike Austin takes you on a behind the scenes tour of Acura's brand new factory where they bring the NSX to life.
Transcript[MUSIC PLAYING]
MICHAEL AUSTIN: We've already driven the Acura NSX. Today, we're in Marysville, Ohio to take a look behind the scenes at Acura's brand new factory where they bring their supercar to life.
The NSX is literally, the heart of [INAUDIBLE]. Acura's performance manufacturing center sits in the middle of their Ohio complex. The PMC itself was designed from the ground up-- an open room where they could design every process to bring the NSX [INAUDIBLE]
At the center of the PMC is the quality inspector group, underlining the fact that quality and craftsmanship is the number one priority for Acura [INAUDIBLE]. More than 500 features are checked in the coordinate measuring [INAUDIBLE] The CMM is also used to calibrate fixtures that are used in the plant at each workstation. The CMM has an accuracy of 30 micron. That's one third the width of [INAUDIBLE].
Building the NSX starts with welding the space frame. Precision robot does most of the mig welds. Robots are faster, which means less heat soaking into the frame and consistency from one frame to another. The rotisserie mount for the parts, as well as the articulation of the robot, means that the welds are always being pushed at a 20 degree angle. All told, there are about 860 mig welds on the NSX, which equals 35 meters of weld.
The eco-process is landfill-free. And it's Honda's first use of a zirconium protector. After the zirconium bath, it goes into the PPG eco-tank. The water in these tanks use wastewater treatment, so that 80% of the water is reclaimed. The frames or parts are baked in a top-load oven for about 50 minutes.
After the ecoat, about 100 meters of dust sealer is applied to the space frame by a technician. This mixture also has a patent pending.
After the seal is baked in an oven for about 30 minutes, it's sent over to a check [? station, ?] where projectors show exactly where each inch of sealant is supposed to be. Total paint process processed two days.
First, up to five coats of base coat are applied, followed by two coats of clear coat. Then baked for 45 minutes, and set the cure for 16 hours.
The next day, two more clear coats are applied, which are then baked, and then inspected.
Like the quality booth, the paint shop is in the center of plant, with glass windows where you can watch everything happen.
Assembly is the last process in the PMC. The cars are pushed from station to station on a body carrier. Every bolt that goes into aluminum is hand-started on the [INAUDIBLE] It's then tightened and checked using a special torque, which not only verifies the ideal amount of torque, but captures the data for later.
Near the end of its assembly, every NSX gets a 45 minute alignment, where they check toe, camber, even caster on all four wheels.
Six of the 12 patents filed in the PMC are at this stage, including what they call the star wars chair-- a special chair that rolls under the car and allows a technician to easily adjust all of the alignment [INAUDIBLE]
After alignment, the NSX goes to a multi-drive test, what we call a dynamometer. There's an underbody inspection. Then the under body covers are put on.
Then it goes to a four-post shaker, where it's checked for rattles, squeaks, and gets a final paint inspection. After that, it rolls its way to a happy customer.
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