21 Cool Facts About the Transparent Volkswagen Factory
The place where VW builds its controversial Phaetonby handis an architectural masterpiece that looks more like a modern museum on the inside than an assembly line. We traveled to Dresden, Germany, to take a tour.
By Basem Wasef
The place where VW builds its controversial Phaeton—by hand—is an architectural masterpiece that looks more like a modern museum on the inside than an assembly line. We traveled to Dresden, Germany, to take a tour.
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21 Cool Facts About the Transparent Volkswagen Factory
If you think car factories are dim boxes filled with robotic arms tending endless dirty assembly lines, you haven't seen Volkswagen's Transparent Factory—aka Die Gläserne Manufaktur—in Dresden, Germany. Unveiled in 2001, the structure's 300,000 square feet of glass is a dizzying architectural accomplishment.
It's also the birthplace of the Volkswagen Phaeton, one of the company's most controversial vehicles. It's no wonder the structure inspired both awe and disdain when it opened its doors. A product of chairman Ferdinand Piëch's expansive vision, the Phaeton has been criticized for being the "anti-people's car"—that is, antithetical to VW's original intent of building affordable transportation—and it was yanked from U.S. showrooms in 2006 following a stateside sales struggle. But what the handmade car lacks in production volume (especially for a brand that sold a staggering 7.2 million vehicles worldwide last year), it makes up for with obsessively engineered details and surprisingly luxurious touches that have trickled down to other VWs. The Phaeton's underpinnings also serve as a shared platform with Bentley's Continental GT lineup.
The Transparent Factory produces an average of 44 Phaetons a day, most of which are destined for China, Germany, and South Korea. And while the Phaeton was followed up by even loftier Piëch creations (among them the seven-figure, 1000-plus-horsepower Bugatti Veyron), the VW factory where its made stands as a stunning engineering and production accomplishment.
"People in the Saxony region carry a special engineering gene in their hearts and minds," VW representative Christian Haacke tells us before guiding us on a tour of the factory. "It took a lot of time and patience for locals to be convinced this was a good idea, but for us, transparency was a metaphor. We had to be truly credible to the bone."
Come along as we take a close look at what makes Volkswagen's Transparent Factory one of the most beautiful and functional production spaces in the automotive world.
It's also the birthplace of the Volkswagen Phaeton, one of the company's most controversial vehicles. It's no wonder the structure inspired both awe and disdain when it opened its doors. A product of chairman Ferdinand Piëch's expansive vision, the Phaeton has been criticized for being the "anti-people's car"—that is, antithetical to VW's original intent of building affordable transportation—and it was yanked from U.S. showrooms in 2006 following a stateside sales struggle. But what the handmade car lacks in production volume (especially for a brand that sold a staggering 7.2 million vehicles worldwide last year), it makes up for with obsessively engineered details and surprisingly luxurious touches that have trickled down to other VWs. The Phaeton's underpinnings also serve as a shared platform with Bentley's Continental GT lineup.
The Transparent Factory produces an average of 44 Phaetons a day, most of which are destined for China, Germany, and South Korea. And while the Phaeton was followed up by even loftier Piëch creations (among them the seven-figure, 1000-plus-horsepower Bugatti Veyron), the VW factory where its made stands as a stunning engineering and production accomplishment.
"People in the Saxony region carry a special engineering gene in their hearts and minds," VW representative Christian Haacke tells us before guiding us on a tour of the factory. "It took a lot of time and patience for locals to be convinced this was a good idea, but for us, transparency was a metaphor. We had to be truly credible to the bone."
Come along as we take a close look at what makes Volkswagen's Transparent Factory one of the most beautiful and functional production spaces in the automotive world.
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The Line
The Glass Factory's oval-shaped assembly line is .93 miles long, featuring a driverless transportation system that hustles car chassis and parts along a recessed track that uses 60,000 magnets. The computer-controlled system employs sliding "fish scale" surfaces that move seamlessly, automatically senses obstacles, and stops when necessary.
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Automated Elevator
This elevator system feeds parts from the ground floor to the assembly line. Once they're sorted, components are distributed to baskets that follow each chassis as they're assembled.
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Stations
On average, there are 110 cars on the line at any given time, and each vehicle pauses at a workstation for an average of 12 minutes as workers assemble and adjust parts by hand. A wireless induction system runs through the floor and provides power to the tools.
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Suspension Rail
Because the Phaeton assembly line is laid out over two levels, these electric suspension rails are used in conjunction with the fish-scale conveyer system to move chassis along for assembly. The rail, developed in part at the University of Dresden, uses giant claws that can pivot the car bodies around workers to minimize ergonomic strain.
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Chassis
Before it's mated with the powertrain, the chassis—which comes from a plant in Zwickau where Passats and Golfs are built—moves along the line and receives electrical and mechanical components. Note the bellows on the base. The whole vehicle lifts or drops, depending on the nature of the required work.
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Doors
Assembling doors requires the incorporation of a wide variety of parts, including safety components, speakers, amplifiers, power window motors, lock assemblies, and insulation.
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Dashboards
Dashboards are preassembled before they're installed in each vehicle. The Phaeton's dash incorporates motorized covers that swivel to reveal HVAC vents.
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Door Fitters
These bizarre-looking machines fuse door assemblies together by creating even pressure around the perimeter, ensuring a tight fit.
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Canadian Maple
The entire floor of the Transparent Factory—more than a quarter-million square feet—is made of Canadian maple. The hardwood not only reduces worker fatigue, it also makes the space resemble a museum more than a factory.
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Powertrain
Vehicle powertrains are assembled separately from the chassis and are sourced from a number of plants. The W-12 and V-6 FSI come from Salzgitter, Germany; the V-8 and V-6 TDI from an Audi plant in Györ, Hungary. Because the Transparent Factory shares components with Bentley, it assisted with production of the Flying Spur model during the flush economic heyday of 2005 and 2006, when the Crewe factory was over capacity. In the interest of historical sensitivity, only righthand-drive Bentleys destined for sale in England were produced during that period.
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Workstation
This bank of computers is responsible for the delicate robotic dance that fits the powertrain with the chassis. The machines tighten 38 bolts to complete the mating, which is a crucial part of the assembly process.
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Indirect Lighting
Another way to reduce workers' strain is to use indirect lighting, seen here. Large overhead skylights augment this system with natural light.
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Computer-Tracked Nuts and Bolts
Every workstation is stocked with the appropriate components required for fitting and assembly, and smart tools track every nut and bolt in order to ensure proper fitting.
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Cargotram
Volkswagen's own 150-ton tram (dubbed CarGoTram), which shares rails with the city's public metro system, moves the parts from a logistics center to the Transparent Factory.
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Discreet Air Conditioning
Air conditioning vents are built right into the moving floor panels, offering temperature modulation with minimal visual intrusiveness.
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Keeping the Cold—and the Birds—Out
Panes of glass spaced 2 feet apart help insulate the factory from temperature variations, and a steel skeletal structure and cable suspensions enhance the transparent aesthetic. To keep birds from flying into the glass, an outdoor speaker system emulates bird language marking the territory as "taken."
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Lab Coats, Not Jumpsuits
Each of the 200 assembly-line workers is required to wear a factory-issued white lab coat. The uniforms lend the operation a look of clinical precision.
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Quality-Control Model
This Phaeton is actually a clay mockup built for quality-control purposes. Weighing several times more than the actual car, it is benchmarked for tolerances and checked repeatedly to ensure the production process is running as planned.
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Final Paint Check
Every Phaeton passes through a tunnel of light, where the fit and finish are painstakingly inspected for flaws. Different sections simulate different types of lighting, to ensure that any error is uncovered before the vehicle meets its owner.
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