manufacturing technology
NSX Test Cars More broadly, Honda also in many instances started
from scratch when devising manufacturing techniques. The Tokyo-based automaker enjoys a reputation for quality of its mass-market models. But engineers decided mass-market production techniques would not automatically carry over to output of the low-volume NSX.
“Not only is this vehicle important to the Acura brand, it’s important to Honda Motor Co. as a whole,” said Clement D’Souza, the chief engineer for the NSX project. He likened the effort and time spent on the new super car
to Honda’s involvement in auto racing. “We race to learn and that spreads to our production vehicles,” he said. With the new manufacturing systems set up for the NSX, “It gives us a smaller volume to prove it out,” D’Souza said. More than four years after Honda announced the new NSX, the company conducted briefi ngs in March for reporters
an auto analyst with IHS Automotive, who attended one of the briefi ngs. “They’re going to take all the lessons learned here and apply them to a future Accord. It allows them to experiment with materials and other things.”
Origins
Honda went public with the return of the NSX at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January 2012. The original NSX, like the new model, had an aluminum body. Since the original ended production more than a decade ago, cutting weight from vehicles has become a major priority for the auto industry. US vehicle fl eets must average 54.5 miles per gallon (23 kilometers per liter) by 2025. Lighter materials are part of the formula automakers are using to improve the fuel effi ciency of their models. The new NSX is a gasoline-electric hybrid, with a twin-
turbo V-6 engine and two electric motors. Honda says the car will have 500 hp (373 kW) just from the V-6 and a total system output of 576 hp (430 kW). Top speed is 191 mph (307 km/h). The V-6 engines are hand- built at the automaker’s engine factory in nearby Anna, OH.
NSX Paint Shop
NSX body panels are immersed in Manufacturing Center’s glass-walled paint shop.
at its Performance Manufacturing Center (PMC), which has been assembling prototype models of the NSX for testing. The facility is part of Honda’s Marysville, OH, complex of factories. Serial production of saleable cars was scheduled to begin by the end of April, with the fi rst deliveries to custom- ers occurring shortly thereafter. “This [sequence of moving from prototype to production vehicles] is really inherent in Honda’s DNA,” said Joe Langley,
The new NSX also has a major manufactur- ing change from its predecessor. Honda opted to build the new version in Ohio. The original had been built in Japan. A building at the Marysville complex was gutted and expanded. Thus was born the Performance Manufactur- ing Center, with about 100 employees. Inside, the center looks like a cross between a small factory and a large shop for a race team. The paint shop has glass walls, making it easy to watch NSXs receiving as many as 11 coats of paint. The idea was to
make the shop a main feature of any plant tour by customers and vendors.
In the center of the building, also inside glass walls, is
what’s called the quality confi rmation center. There is a large CMM (accurate to within 30 μm) and two Romer portable CMMs, each accurate to within 50 μm. The quality operation is in the middle of the facility because the company is em- phasizing building everything to specifi cation the fi rst time.
32 — Motorized Vehicle Manufacturing 2016
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