Check out this behind the scenes look at how the Mercedes-Benz C-Class is built from scratch at the carmaker’s plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama – the first Mercedes-Benz passenger car production facility outside Germany, established in 1993.
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Aside from the C-Class, the plant also produces Mercedes-Benz SUVs, such as the GLE, GLE coup, GLS model series, and the Mercedes-Maybach GLS. It also started making the EQS electric SUV in 2022.
The Tuscaloosa plant uses robots to do most of the manufacturing process, ensuring a quick turnaround time and creating a more conducive work environment. As seen in the video below, the plant’s chassis assembly process is fully automated, limiting actual human work. It employs a different approach than other vehicle manufacturing plants, such as Toyota Canada and Kentucky, where the RAV4 is built.
The robots, specifically the robotic arms at Mercedes-Benz’s Alabama plant, are said to be versatile, allowing them to perform a wide range of tasks such as welding, painting, and installation of the vehicle’s doors and other interior components. It can rotate at an angle of up to six degrees, allowing it to conduct welding works on the chassis’ hidden zones or hard-to-reach areas.
The robots work collectively as a team, with each “arm” having a designated task, making the production process more efficient. The German carmaker’s Tuscaloosa plant also uses line-guided transport robots to transport metallic parts or components from one station to the other. The technology is similar to automated guided vehicles used at the Toyota GR Factory in Japan.
The video also provides insight into the Mercedes-Benz manufacturing facility named Factory 56, located in Sindelfingen, Germany, which produces the S-Class, Mercedes-Maybach, and EQS. Unlike the Tuscaloosa plant, Factory 56 has more human intervention in the production assembly line. It still uses robots, although most of the work is supervised or done by people.
The vehicle’s dashboard is preassembled in a parallel workshop, with utmost attention to all the bespoke customization of each Mercedes-Benz car. All vehicle center console components are mounted by hand instead of robots, which is said to prevent scratches or any damage better.
Factory 56 is also equipped with what Mercedes-Benz calls “Intelligent Sensors,” a technology that detects if the vehicle has incurred any error during production.
