Weld room — the unifiers
The weld room does not have the special effects of the press room, the multicolour allure of the paint shop or the eye-catching grandness of the final assembly facility, but this is no poor cousin performing journeyman assignments. It is here that the Indica becomes recognisable. What till now was metallic mishmash acquires a definite form in the weld shop, named so because it is the place where the car’s body is welded, or joined, together.

There are seven conveyor lines in the weld shop. One is for the front portion of the Indica’s underbody, another for the rear. A third line unites the front and rear of the car’s underbody, and the fourth does the re-spotting (welding in areas that are ordinarily unapproachable). Then there’s a ‘main tack line’, where the sides of the Indica and the roof get attached to the now complete underbody. The ‘closures line’ brings in the doors, the tailgate, hood, fenders, etc, and the ‘slack conveyor completes the integration job.

After ‘dent rectification’, the car is cleaned with a solvent. Gaps are covered using a thumb sealant and jigs are placed so that the doors remain closed in the paint shop, to where the Indica is now headed. The car is now called a ‘body in white’ and is given a number tag.

Paint shop — the decorators
The paint shop is the beauty parlour of the Indica car plant. Spread over 44,400 square meters, it’s the biggest block in the plant. But magnitude alone does not make the paint shop stand apart; it is the quality of its work that makes it special (Mercedes is among those who uses its expertise).

The Indica has come out in 20 different shades thus far, and new ones are introduced once in about six months. Advances in painting technology make this easier than in the past. In 1925 it took 23 steps stretching over three to six weeks to paint the shell of a car; today it takes 18 steps spread over less than 10 hours to accomplish the same (the Indica plant can paint 42 cars in an hour).

The paint shop is a cut above the rest of the plant in the spic-and-span department. This is a necessity in this facility because even the slightest bit of grime — in some areas of operations — can have telltale effects. The cleanliness in this block extends to unexpected areas. Outside the office of J. K. Tawade, the divisional manager in charge of the facility, is a fish tank that uses treated wastewater from the paint block. The fish seem to be doing swimmingly well.

The paint shop operates at four levels to cater to the requirements of its processes. At 10 meters below ground level, everything, specially the paint that spills, is exhausted out. At five meters above ground level are the ovens that bake and dry the coating on the car. At 10 meters above ground level is an air supply plant that helps keep dust out of the shop’s environs.

The atmosphere in parts of the paint shop is strictly controlled. Temperatures here are kept at 26^oC and clean air is continuously filtered. The car itself, the end object of all this care, goes through a five-stage painting process before it can be sent to the final assembly block.

The procedure begins with a ‘dip treatment’ wherein the car body (the body in white from the weld shop) is dipped in14 tanks and gets a phosphate coat. After this the body is baked. Then comes the ‘cathodic electrolytic deposits’ coat, following which the body is baked again.

The body is sealed before it gets a primer surface coat and is brushed clean with dusters made of ostrich feathers. The base coat and a clear coat of lacquer follow the primer surface coat. The primer is a water-based coat, whereas the base coat is of the same colour as that the car will sport when the painting operation is completed. The lacquer coat is the final flourish in the process.

Quality audits follow before the car is transported, via an elevated and covered conveyor bridge, to the final assembly block.

Final assembly — the integrators
The final assembly shop of the Indica plant is comparable to the home straight of a long-distance race. The endeavours here are more strenuous and substantial than anything that came before, and there’s no room at all for error. The busiest of the plant’s facilities lives up to its nomenclature, filling the vacant spaces in the Indica and amalgamating its multitude of components.

The starting point on the final assembly is the ‘cab-dropping point’, a raised holding port from where the bodies deposited by the paint shop are automatically brought down to begin a four-hour journey (that’s the time it takes for a car to complete the gamut of operations here). Depending on the colour plan for the day, the operator down below decides which shade of car body to call.

Trim line-I
There are four conveyor lines in the final assembly block. The trim line is the first of these and the action here begins with each car body being allocated a chassis number. The Tata and Indica tags come on before the cabling and wiring of the car gets done. The doors of the car are detached at this point. This is to enable workers easy manoeuvrability as they swarm over and inside the vehicle fitting and fixing parts.

Noise, vibration and harshness is minimised by a procedure called foaming (adding rubber fittings). The first wave of work happens here: the brake pipe and hand brake come on, the cabin and the floor are insulated, the floor is carpeted and the accelerator is fitted. Next come the air conditioner, dashboard, steering mechanism, steering pipeline, roof lining and the instrument cluster (indicators).

Trim line-II
Robotics is a dominant feature on this conveyor line. A robot applies a sealant on the front glass before it is manually fixed to the car. Then come the air-conditioning controls, combination switches and seat belts. The rear lights are put on panels in the bullhorn design typical of the Indica. The fuel neck, rear bumper, seats and steering wheel are fixed before the car is taken to the next line.

Underbody line
On this stretch the car is lifted up to line which is around five feet high. Work is done on the car from below. Given the critical nature of the components added here, the best operators in the block are deployed here. This is where the engine, exhaust and wheels are fitted, as also the radiator, the fuel tank, the condenser, the mudguard and the catalytic converter (for emission control).

Mechanical line
The mechanical line is the last stop before the Indica cruises into existence. Fuel, oil and gas (for the air conditioning) come pouring in before the car gets a battery. The doors are fitted back, the wheels aligned and the headlights adjusted. This is followed by a brake test and some serious roughing up over a jagged surface. A shower test to detect leaks is the final round.

There’s one final check on the Indica before it speeds out of the assembly building for a road test. The country’s automotive pioneer is now ready to claim its bragging rights — more car per car.

Delivering more than what’s expected of it has helped the Indica carve a niche for Tata Engineering in a market getting more competitive and crowed by the day. That’s some comeback for a venture that seemed to be floundering at one point.

"In August-September 2000, the very fate of [the Indica] project seemed to be hanging in the balance," recalls Mr Thatte, the general manager who runs the show at the plant. "The picture has changed so completely that today it looks like a dream come true for Tata Engineering."

More dreams will turn into reality for Tata Engineering if the place that breathes life into India’s very own car can keep up the good work

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