Nissan is pleased as punch today because it’s new crankshaft forging press has finally reached the end of its
two-month long journey from Osaka, Japan to Smyrna, Tennessee. The giganto machina arrived in New Orleans from Japan
and was then floated up the Mississippi River in pieces on its way to Nashville. The press itself was the heaviest
single shipment and arrived in Nashville yesterday.
The forging press will weigh over 2,000,000 lbs. and
measure 24-ft. wide and 27-ft long when fully assembled. It will be tasked with producing one million crankshaft
forgings annually at the Smyrna plant’s new crankshaft forging facility, which requires about 50 to 60 people to
operate. The crankshafts will be used in inline 4-cylinder, V6 and V8 engines, including the peerless VQ V6 that has
been a Ward’s 10 Best
for 12 straight years.
[Source: Nissan]