Has anyone ever work at an automotive stamping plant? I’m tring to find out how steel was brought in and waste sheet metal was handled. I was told in the 30’s and 40’s steel was brought in by box cars, can anyone comfirm this? Were fork trucks or cranes used to off load? Was scrap sheet metal hauled away from the presses in bins or was there a conveyor? Thanks for your help.
In the late 70s I was repairing the large batteries for electric fork lifts. Chrysler’s Twinsburg stamping plant was one of our customers. Steel was brought in cut and stacked on pallets to the size they needed, and rolled. By rail but mostly by truck. Scrap was tossed in bins and dumped into a large roll off dumpster.
Pete
Pete, thanks for info, I.m building a stamping plant and would like to get it right or fairly close. Thanks again.
I worked installing the fire alarm in the old Chrysler Plant in Delaware in the early 90’s. I got to see the entire process from start to end. They had a section that did much of the sheet metal stamping. The sheet metal was brought in by train. Box cars were pushed into the building. Fork Lifts would un-load and distribute everything. There wasn’t a lot of waste but what there was went to the nearest recycling plant.
Covered gons and dedicated steel cars are fairly recent developments and box cars were used before the 50s. Prior to electrogalvanized exposed automotive scrap from stamping plant was prime scrap and how handled was a function of shape and size.
Thanks for all the help, I worked for G.M. for 30 yrs. and 5 differant assembly plants but never a stamping plant. Again thanks!
Indoor unloading is common in today’s plants. We have a GM truck plant nearby in Roanoke, Indiana. A friend works for a GM parts supply warehouse near Flint, Michigan and they unload cars indoors too.