Bartek S.
Aerodynamic Ace
BMW Manufacturing Co. will be the subject of the National Geographic Channel's "Ultimate Factories" television show Thursday, Nov. 29, at 9 p.m. ET. The hour-long program will focus on the building of the famous Z4 Roadster and is a one-of-a-kind, behind-the-scenes tour of the high-tech manufacturing plants that create this world class automobile. The National Geographic Channel team spent a week in Germany, filming at the factory in the Bavarian heartland of Landshut, where the automotive industry's lightest six-cylinder crankcase is made, at the Munich factory that assembles 1,200 engines a day, and seven days at BMW Manufacturing in Upstate South Carolina where every BMW Z4 is built.
The program also highlights BMW's environmental innovation by being the world's first automotive factory to recycle landfill methane gas from rotting trash to power its plant. Methane gas routed from the nearby Palmetto Landfill provides BMW Manufacturing Co. with 63 percent of all its power, reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the upstate of South Carolina by 60,000 tons per year - the equivalent of 4,300 cars driving around the equator every year.
The U.S. plant has 4,500 associates - and almost 500 robots - that produce 600 vehicles a day. From the Body Shop to the Paint Shop and then Assembly, in just under 40 hours a sleek, customized and luxurious BMW Z4 Roadster, replete with the unique double kidney grill and famous white-and-blue roundel logo, is made. Tune in and see how it's done.
http://www.mwerks.com/artman/publish/bmw_news/article_1285.shtml
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