Sheet Metal Stamping Simulation

Canadian automotive components giant Magna International has beefed up its presence in the fast-expanding US electric vehicle market this week after its Magna E-Car Systems venture opened a new electric vehicle development and testing facility in Michigan.

On his campaign website, Lt. Gov. Jim Folsom Jr. claims that his outreach to Mercedes-Benz led to a $7 billion flood of auto industry investment that brought more than 50,000 jobs to Alabama. “When I served as Alabama's Governor,” Folsom claims on the site, “I was told it was a dream to believe Mercedes would choose Alabama to build its first American manufacturing plant, but my administration rolled up our sleeves and made it happen. Today, Alabama is home to multiple auto plants and over 50,000 direct jobs because that vision and persistence led the way with Mercedes. Since then, the automobile industry has invested over $7 billion in Alabama.”

A new contract from General Motors will give a Windsor, Ont., factory hope for the future and secure 230 jobs.

Along with school boards across the country, the Brandywine Community Schools Board of Education takes a look each year at its budgetary issues, what programs it can afford to keep and what courses won’t be offered in the next year.Around the time of budget planning last year, board members were told of Chris Inman’s machine tool tech class he teaches to all grades as well as his manufacturing academy course, which is taught on site at Lake Michigan College’s Bertrand Crossings Campus to students from schools like Brandywine, Niles, Buchanan and Berrien Springs.

At the site where the steel for the famous Gateway Arch in St. Louis was put together and shipped down to its destination in the 1960s, a service center on Neville Island today is on track to ship more than 200,000 tons of steel from its huge warehouses along the Ohio River.

Keen to support its growth, Southwestern Manufacturing erected a roadside sign earlier this month to draw applicants for about 20 new jobs at the Windsor plant.

General Motors Co. said today it is investing $23.5 million to boost production of vehicle electrification components on the site of the Baltimore Transmission Plant."This will allow us to strengthen our core electrification components expertise," said GM Manufacturing Manager Arvin Jones.
 

GM announces it will invest million of dollars into improving its White Marsh transmission plant.

Suzanne Collins reports the news comes as the company's first electric car, the Volt, hits the market.

Governor Martin O'Malley checked out the new GM Volt, which will be in showrooms in November. General Motors management is excited about the prospects for its first electric car.

There is good news to report on one of the key industries of the Lansing-area economy. Manufacturing in the capital area is emerging from one of its worst downturns on record. Jobs this past June were up by 3,100 from a year ago and are averaging year-over-year gains of about 1,800 jobs for the first half of 2010. Employment topped 18,000 in June for the first time since 2008.

As the Paris Motor Show takes place, the UK is still a major player when it comes to manufacturing even though it does not have many domestically-owned car makers.

Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Ford, Jaguar, Land Rover, Vauxhall, Bentley and BMW all help to make Britain the fourth largest vehicle manufacturer in Europe, assembling cars, vans and engines for the UK and for export.Some 820,000 jobs depend on the automotive industry - a staggering number but 54,000 fewer than five years ago before the financial crisis.

Manufacturers are realizing more and more every day there are virtually no limits to what water jets are capable of cutting and machining. Due to its versatility and ease of operation, water jet cutting technology has become one of the fastest growing machine processes in the world.

Machine tool distributor marks 50 years of success and more than 11,000 machine tool installations since its founding.

Ford India, the wholly-owned subsidiary of US car major Ford Motor Company, has doubled production at its Indian manufacturing facility in Chennai following increase in demand in the domestic market, a top official said.

Michael Boneham, president & managing director of Ford India, said the production in Chennai facility has been increased to 400 cars per day from 200 units. The increase in production has been achieved by introducing the second shift since July, he said.

A $26 million investment in Chesterfield County has allowed one company to introduce new technology will help increase performance and fuel efficiency in vehicle engine models.

Schaeffler Group USA announced Tuesday the investment at its Cheraw facility will lead to the addition of 70 new jobs.

When the NUMMI auto plant in Fremont shut down in April, many pronounced it dead -- a triple victim of the recession, sliding auto sales and General Motors' bankruptcy.But NUMMI is about to be reborn. Electric-carmaker Tesla Motors, which stunned the world when it announced plans to purchase the plant in May, officially takes ownership Oct. 1.