BENTLEY OFFERS FIRST GLIMPSE OF MULSANNE CRAFTSMANSHIP AT NEW BODY ASSEMBLY CENTRE

(Crewe, England. 4 February 2010) The design of the Mulsanne, Bentley’s new flagship, is a compelling fusion of sportiness, solidity and coach-built elegance – created on a grand scale. Its sweeping bonnet and long overhang convey a sense of power and movement, enhanced by the muscular haunches and sharply sculpted lines flowing gracefully from the front wings to the rear.

Now Bentley is offering an early preview of the complex processes, advanced technology, traditional British coachbuilding skills and painstaking attention to detail that will deliver the design and engineering vision of a car created without compromise.

The shining bare metal shells that will eventually become Bentley’s new flagship are created using a combination of high-strength steels and aluminium. These components are assembled into a complete shell using techniques that range from industry-leading adhesives through to hand-crafted brazing skills.

It requires 125 man-hours to create the body of a pre-production Mulsanne at the new 7,500m2 Assembly Centre. And inside the multi-million pound facility, robotic arms carrying massive self-piercing riveters work in harmony with coachbuilders renowned for their metalworking skills at the company’s Crewe factory.

For example, the Mulsanne’s hewn from solid appearance without visible panel seams is impossible in volume car manufacture. The seamless sweep of the Mulsanne’s roof, rear wing and boot can only be achieved by crafting a hand-brazed seam midway down the D-pillar, a task still best performed with ‘hand and eye’ by Bentley’s award-winning craftsmen. The quality of this type of work has earned Crewe’s craftsmen the rare distinction of a medal from the British Institute of Sheet Metal Engineering.

In complete contrast to the craftsman’s time-honoured skills, is the use of superforming which is essential to create the highly-complex three dimensional curves of the Mulsanne’s front wings. This advanced technique, primarily used by the aerospace industry, heats a single sheet of aluminium to 500 degrees centigrade and then forces it onto a single surface tool using air pressure.

As Bentley prepares to produce the very first customer cars later this year, the body assembly team are undertaking a range of exhaustive tests on the first bodies being developed in pre-production.

This includes tearing apart completed bodies with specialist cutting gear to analyse the breaking point of a seam or weld as well as minutely measuring the accuracy of finished components and bodyshells – a remarkable 588 functions and relationships are measured to ensure complete precision. In addition to cutting apart bodyshells, Bentley uses ultrasonic measuring equipment to analyse the strength and consistency of individual welds.

Gary Picken, Senior Production Manager, explains:

“During these early, pre-production stages we are exhaustively testing the build process to achieve the absolute precision and quality we are seeking for our customers.”

Prospective Mulsanne customers will be able to see their cars take shape, from individual panels to finished body, in a specially designed viewing gallery. It has been created to offer a perfect view of every stage of the build process and watch the 100-strong team at work. Gary Picken adds:

“The Mulsanne has a beautiful and very complex body made from an intelligent mix of high-strength steels, aluminium and composites. Within one assembly area we’re utilising traditional skills for which Bentley is renowned right alongside state-of-the-art manufacturing technology. We combine these two different approaches because it is the best possible route to create a car that will be enjoyed by generations of drivers.”

As a contemporary artist living and working in New York, Diana Al-Hadid a 27-year-old sculptor from Syria, has achieved the kind of success one might expect from someone twice her age.  Constructing large architectural sculptures from media such as polystyrene, plaster, fibreglass, wood and wax, Al-Hadid has already won numerous awards for her work, from the Sculpture Space in 2005 to the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant in 2007.  Read the full story

In an article published in the National, the idea that children who are obese could in fact have a shorter life expectancy than their parents was nothing more than a serious wake-up-call.  With 60% of New Yorkers overweight or obese, the article focuses on Manhattan and new ideas that may be introduced to tackle the obesity epidemic, such as taxing sugary drinks. Although the Government has already banned smoking in public places, prohibited restaurants from using trans fats and forced fast-food restaurants chains to post calorie counts on its menus, the idea of the government imposing further regulation on businesses has provoked mixed reactions amongst businesses. In the UAE, obesity levels are just as alarming with 12% of the country’s children overweight and another 22% susceptible to obesity due to a lack of exercise and poor diet. In recent months, a three-month publicity drive, The Fat Truth, was spearheaded by the Ministry of Health and Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, the wife of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Who is to blame for the high levels of obesity? The Media for portraying images of stick thin celebrities, The Government, Businesses, or is it us? Are we to blame for putting the high fat, low calorie junk food into our and our children’s mouths day after day?

SOURCES
The National - Teachers and Doctors call for obesity screening in schools read full article here
The National - City to dish out second helping of food reform read full article here