CK have successfully installed and modified new tooling into the Jaguar Land Rover Halewood plant to support the launch of the new Evoque which has been branded as the most efficient Range Rover ever.

The Evoque will be built on a common assembly facility that also builds the current Freelander; job 1 for the Evoque is January 2011.

CK were tasked with designing tooling that could cater for the different assembly conditions between the 2 vehicles. The Evoque is based on the same platform as the FreeLander with the front of the vehicle being raised by 27mm. A new engine and gearbox has also been introduced to provide efficiency and performance for the Evoque. CK provided a tooling system that enables the tooling to be configured quickly & efficiently to ensure production volumes can be maintained. The operator manually raises and lowers the tooling supports in one easy motion to cater for the height difference.

CK have supplied new front axle build fixtures and installed new tooling onto the front axle platens and decking fixtures. All tooling was successfully installed during August 2010 and production of the current Freelander has resumed with no issues.

CK are currently supplying additional tooling to assist in the pre-production vehicle builds.

CK have been awarded a project within Ford Romania to design, manufacture and install a range of tooling & equipment to assist with the manufacture of the new B-Max & Transit Connect.

CK will be supplying our own standard “slave tool system” for engine build up and powertrain marriage processes along with various bespoke sub-assembly fixtures for the powertrain components.

CK will be managing a number of suppliers to provide conveyor systems, assembly machines and storage systems.

CK plan to complete a modular build phase at their works in the UK to fully build and test the tooling & equipment prior to delivery and installation into Ford Romania. This process will provide Ford with the opportunity to build vehicle product using the production equipment far earlier than ever before.

The majority of the equipment will be installed into Ford Romania in the 2011 summer shutdown to support a job 1 date of March 2012.

Earlier in 2009 CK were provided with the opportunity from Ford North America (FNA) to visit Detroit and give a presentation on the unique and successful Slave Tool principles. FNA were keen to learn about the flexibility that Ford of Europe (FOE) have enjoyed over the past 8 years within engine decking.

During the visit CK were able to promote the Slave Tool solution and explain the synergies that FNA could take from FOE to ensure that the solutions would be commercially viable over the life of a vehicle program.

The visit was very successful to the degree that CK were successful in winning in the contract for the supply of 54 off front decking tools.

During the project CK would need to work closely with the Ford chosen supplier, Fori Automation, and as proved on numerous occasions CK are more than able to work with many different project structures to ensure that a successful conclusion is reached. To date both CK, Fori and Ford have worked closely together proving that distance is no longer an issue with the business world.

CK are now currently on the bulk manufacture stage of the project and expect to see no issues prior to dispatching another Slave Tool system.

CK are now looking forward to developing a working relationship with FNA to enable CK to supply more products to provide greater synergy between FOE and FNA, which in turn will help to reduce costs within the One Ford group.

Late 2008 CK won the contract for the supply of tooling for the Ford C-Mav introduction into the Valencia production facility.

CK's contract included the installation of new Engine Dress Line (EDL) tooling, New Engine Pre Dress tooling and Front/Rear Decking tooling to accommodate the needs of the production facility.

When the complexity and varied engine / gearbox line up of the existing (Fiesta and Focus) vehicles was coupled to the new C-Mav vehicle it presented CK with an issue on the Engine Dress Line. Although it was possible to use conventional tooling methods, CK were very conscious of the future engine and gearbox introductions into the vehicle programs. CK did not want to supply an Engine Dress Line tool, which would only be operational for 12 months before a complete re-design was required.

Based on the future engine build data CK developed a new slave type solution, that in future should allow for lower on-costs when and adding and deleting new variants. Currently CK are awaiting confirmation on the latest variants to be introduced to confirm CK's unique and innovative solution provides a cheaper solution for Ford in the coming years. The above complexity usually causes issues on pre-dress fixtures due to the amount of engines required in a very small area. However over the years CK have developed the fixtures in Valencia and are very experienced in this issue. Once again our design team produced a fixture that fitted straight into the line and worked first time with a large complexity of both new and old engines.

The engine decking system in Valencia is very well known to CK and once again ensure that both the front and rear tooling changes were introduced with no loss of production or issues.