For the next generation
NOTCH STOP In October 2003, Edscha’s latest hinge generation will go into production. A highly sensitive steel colossus weighing 150 tons has been especially designed to produce it.
W hen the first owners of the new Smart Forfour proudly open the doors to their cars in the spring of
2004, they will hardly guess how much effort was needed to make this possible: three years of development time for the hinge and another 20 months for the equipment on which it is produced.
INVESTMENT IN THE FUTURE
At Hauzenberg in the Bavarian Forest, a 30 kilometer drive from Passau, Edscha invested in the summer of 2003 about three million
euros in a specially designed production facility for the Notch Stop, the group’s latest integrated hinge generation. This hinge not only affords more comfort to drivers, but also distinct advantages to carmakers during assembly (pages 10f.). As of the coming year, the Notch Stop – three million copies of it annually – will also be opening doors and locking them in position in five other vehicles in addition to the Smart Forfour.
To enable each Notch Stop to perform its task perfectly, hinge production must attain both a high level of precision and, if produc-
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