Officials from GM Technical Center Korea (GMTCK) Production Technology Research Institute taking commemorative photos at the new painting factory. The first deputy general manager on the left, Gyeong-sam Yoo, built the Changwon plant 30 years ago and took on the task of building a new one this time. Photo = GM Korea
“An executive from the United States saw a Sword brush robot entering the Changwon plant and was wondering for a long time, saying,’What is this. In the end, the new technology first applied to the Changwon paint shop was exported to the United States as a global standard by GM.”
Jaehee Kim, director of the production technology research center of GM Technical Center Korea (GMTCK), who oversees the construction of the new technology applied to the new painting plant at GM Korea’s Changwon Plant, was proud of his technology and introduced it.
GM Korea is modernizing its Changwon plant with the goal of completion in the first half of 2022. A new painting factory was recently built, and the existing factory is also scheduled to be demolished and replaced with a new factory. When modernization is over, it will be in charge of producing GM’s global new crossover utility vehicle (CUV) exports. GM Korea is applying various cutting-edge technologies to its factories to improve the production quality of CUV.
Manager Kim emphasizes the significance of the Changwon plant, saying that the most recent finished car plant GM built in Korea was the Gunsan plant in 1993. “Recently, many GM plants have been built in China, and they are all neat and state-of-the-art facilities equipped with a lot of new technology. When I applied to the construction site in China, I often said,’When will we build such a factory?”
Kim Jae-hee, director of GM Technical Center Korea’s painting production technology, introduces the sword brush (above) and the hem flange sealing robot applied to the Changwon painting plant. Photo = GM Korea
Kim emphasized that all new technologies were melted into the newly built painting factory to relieve the cold. He said, “GM has global standards in all processes, and this plant has followed global standards in all areas, including technology, quality, eco-friendliness, and energy efficiency.”
Sealing is an operation to prevent water from entering the joints of automobile bodies and being corroded. Because each vehicle has a different shape and complexity, manual work was done before. Manager Kim said, “Most people were doing the white sealing on the car door side.”
To paint a car, you need to remove all the dirt from the car body. New technology was also applied to this work. “In the past, I used ostrich hair with excellent collection effect. Among them, I worked hard, such as using only the best two-year-old tail hair, but in the end, there is a problem that the hair comes off and dust is generated.” To solve this problem, I found a Sword brush system developed in Germany.
GM Korea President Kaher Kazem also showed a lot of interest by visiting the Changwon painting factory as his first destination this year. Photo = GM Korea
He explained, “The Sword Brush System that a robot with a long brush rotates to remove dust was discovered in Germany and was the first GM applied to the Changwon plant.” Although it has provided a high level of painting quality before, it is explained that the quality can be improved further.
This technology was also coveted in the United States. Manager Kim recalled, “At the time when the first unit was installed in the Bupyeong plant before the application of the Changwon plant, the executives of the US headquarters visited Korea.”
He added, “At the request of US executives, we shared the Sword Brush system, and eventually exported it as a global standard for GM,” he added. “The case of exporting the technology to the United States while building a Korean factory equipped with new technologies.”
The Changwon factory under construction. In addition to the painting factory at the front, the old factories are demolished sequentially and converted into new factories. Photo = GM Korea
In addition, various new technologies have been introduced into the painting plant at the Changwon Plant, such as the elimination of the intermediate process that discharges a lot of pollutants and applying the latest water-soluble 3-wet process to the top coat process. Manager Kim emphasized, “I wish we could build a factory like this, but we finally solved our wish.”
The new painting factory is currently undergoing quality inspection, and the completion ceremony is scheduled to be held in March. After that, the old factory was demolished and the work of building a new factory was repeated to complete the modernization in the first half of next year. The size of the entire plant is doubled and the output (UPH) of 50 units per hour is increased to 60 units.
“I joined Daewoo Motors 30 years ago and worked on the construction of the Changwon plant,” said Yoo Gyeong-sam, deputy chief of the production technology research center, who shared the job with him. I am happy to pass on the know-how of seniors to the young employees who will lead the company,” he said.
Sesung Oh, reporter of Hankyung.com [email protected]
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