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Next-Generation Ford F-150 Delayed By Nearly Three Months Due To Aluminum Issues


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The coolest plant tour though is the Severstal Plant (Rouge Steel / Ford Steel Division) it is just amazing, they really need to include that on the Rouge factory tour.

 

 

Ford sold the old Rouge Steel plant to Severstal (a Russian Company) in 2004. The old Rouge steel complex is no longer part of Ford.

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This one made me a bit said (even though I am a fan of both).

 

 

Not me.

 

I'm not a fan of JJ Abrams' Star Trek movies. They're okay as 2-hour explosions of sound and fury, but there's dang little thinking in them.

 

For my money, Whedon should've gotten the Star Trek franchise. Firefly, IMO, is Star Trek.

 

Both series were closely concerned with ethically navigating an ambiguous universe. Star Trek's was ambiguous because it was frontier territory: 'strange new worlds', Firefly's because the bad guys had won (but with a fair bit of frontier territory as well).

 

Both ships were led by a principled captain with an overriding loyalty to crew.

 

And if you're still not convinced, try this thought exercise: What would an episode of Star Trek look like if the Klingons had won?

Edited by RichardJensen
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Guy Fleegman: I changed my mind. I wanna go back.

Sir Alexander Dane: After the fuss you made about getting left behind?

Guy Fleegman: Yeah, but that's when I thought I was the crewman that stays on the ship, and something is up there, and it kills me. But now I'm thinking I'm the guy who gets killed by some monster five minutes after we land on the planet.

Jason Nesmith: You're not gonna die on the planet, Guy.

Guy Fleegman: I'm not? Then what's my last name?

Jason Nesmith: It's, uh, uh - -I don't know.

Guy Fleegman: Nobody knows. Do you know why? Because my character isn't important enough for a last name, because I'm gonna die five minutes in.

Gwen DeMarco: Guy, you have a last name.

Guy Fleegman: DO I? DO I? For all you know, I'm "Crewman Number Six"! Mommy... mommy...

Sir Alexander Dane: Are we there yet?

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Ford sold the old Rouge Steel plant to Severstal (a Russian Company) in 2004. The old Rouge steel complex is no longer part of Ford.

Actually Ford didn't sell it. Severstal bought Rouge Steel in Bankruptcy but Rouge was an independent company then. Ford sold the Steel Division to become Rouge Steel in 1989.

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Actually Ford didn't sell it. Severstal bought Rouge Steel in Bankruptcy but Rouge was an independent company then. Ford sold the Steel Division to become Rouge Steel in 1989.

 

Very true. I forgot that Ford had spun off Rouge Steel many years back. From what I understand, Servestal has been a good owner. They've invested a lot of money in the Dearborn plant.

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Further from TTAC:

 

We received a note from Alcoa, a supplier of aluminum, regarding our story on delays with the next Ford F-150. Alcoa’s Monica Orbe sent us this note

While details of future programs and timelines should come from automotive OEMs themselves – regardless of the platform — we can say that Alcoa does not have any issues with its automotive production lines
. It is important to note that aluminum is the second most used material to build cars today. Automakers have successfully used Alcoa materials to produce aluminum-intensive vehicles since the mid 1990s.

 


Alcoa has basically said that the opening paragraph in the original TTAC article is untrue

 


 

TTAC’s supplier sources have reported that Ford is facing issues regarding their next-generation F-150 pickup, which is slated to use aluminum extensively.Having previously reported on the F-150′s aluminum body, our source told us that the aluminum (said to be an alloy) supplied by Alcoa and other Tier 2 suppliers did not meet internal forming requirements for the “tooling tryout” phase of pre-production.

 

 

 

The reason Ford has a tooling tryout is to find out whether the settings are correct and quality is acceptable,

the next pre production run of try outs is probably planned in three months time after suitable revisions.

That does not necessarily mean three months delay on production launch as the first batch of vehicles

may be used to evaluate systems not affected by imperfect panels.

Edited by jpd80
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Does TTAC know what a Tier 1 supplier is?

 

If Ford is buying the product, it is buying the product from a Tier 1 supplier.

No Rich, TTAC obviously doesn't have a clue about Tier 1 and their contributions.

Those suppliers have intimate knowledge as to the real state of play,

Alcoa was saying in a polite way, there is no issue......

 

Someone overheard something about imperfect stampings and

just assumed a delay in approval affects the launch date.

Edited by jpd80
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