Friends' Gallery Picture of the Month - July 2020

[Henry Harris]

Another pic of the press shop, Longbridge, 1935ish?

   

from BMIHT flickr

[Ivor Hawkins]

Judging by the mudguards in shot, I would have said a couple years earlier, nevertheless another superb photograph

[Tony Griffiths]

And here's how it's done now - with lots of similar videos on youtube - remarkable engineering progress and a neat, clean and very sanitary factory...: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1WLO_OWrLE

[andrew34ruby]

Somehow the old photos are far more impressive than that you tube. Excellent old stuff.

[Reckless Rat]

My son took me on a tour of the Mercedes Benz factory in Sindelfingen a bit back. We saw the C class production line as well as various other bits. The bodyshells start off from a huge roll of sheet metal that then passes through various presses, welding, glueing and spraying processes and comes out the other end as a fully formed bodyshell without any human intervention. Robots do the lot. It's very impressive.

[Chris KC]

Health and safety is one of those luxuries not universally enjoyed around the world, even today - we might have it here but on the other hand the UK scarcely manufactures anything any more. When people buy cheap imported goods from overseas they tend not to stop and ask why they are so cheap. In the course of my career I've audited plants in Eastern Europe and Russia, seen a few in Asia too, which don't look a great deal different from this month's splendid picture. I remember one where they were at pains to explain to me the number of improvements they had made since the last audit - the previous team had peeped inside the doors and refused to enter the building...

[Mike Costigan]

See the Austin press in action in the Archive film library; go to 'Here's to Beauty', and after the hand formed dies, the presses are in action around the 4.50 mark:

http://archive.a7ca.org/collections/films/