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mwerks.com Miscellaneous Features It just wouldn’t have been right. What kind of BMW enthusiast would fly nine hours to arrive in Munich and not even stop to see the home of Bavarian motoring? Sure, we had a tight schedule on our way to cover the Geneva Auto Show, but for crying out loud, we flew into Munich to drive to Geneva. The least we could do is spend a couple hours poking around at the BMW Museum before hitting the autobahn for Switzerland.
Next to the 4-cylinder skyscraper sits another distinctly German building designed by the very same architect, the BMW Museum. The Museum, completed in 1973, is a most unusual building, shaped like a large bowl, with its circular base that grows larger in diameter as it rises nearly five stories high. Inside, a spiral path supported by four pillars provides the museum floor space; visitors unknowingly work their way upward and outward as they stroll through the various displays. A visit to the BMW Museum Inside the museum, visitors will find a small gift shop on the first floor, along with some static displays. Paid admission grants you access to the spiraling exhibits above the ground floor. The museum displays are organized in chronological order, and include not only automobiles, but also motorcycles and airplanes. As visitors wind their way to the top they can stop at listening stations that offer narration in several different languages through headphones. More than 50 vehicles and various components are on display. All of the usual suspects are there: a 2002 Turbo, a 3.0 CS Coupe, a 507 Roadster, and so on. Some less expected examples included a cutaway 750iL and a 2-cylinder 700 Convertible from the early Sixties. A tour of the museum is a reminder that BMW’s real strength is in building engines. Displays included a number of impressive aircraft engines, ranging from pre-war radials to early jet engines from the Forties. All of the benchmark automotive engines were proudly displayed as well: the revolutionary 6-cylinder from the mid-‘30s 328, the classic 4-cylinder from the mid-‘60s, and the all-aluminum V-12 from 1987. There was even a BMW marine engine on display. In addition to showcasing BMW’s production vehicles, the museum also houses some of the company’s great design and engineering concepts, like the gull-winged Turbo experimental vehicle from 1972 and the 1600-based electric car from 1969. Environmental concerns are addressed at several points along the way. One display focuses on the importance of recyclability in automotive manufacturing. Another describes BMW’s commitment to fuel alternatives, explaining the concept behind its CleanEnergy initiative. A couple of short videos are available for viewing in the upper-level theater; one discusses BMW’s achievements in developing combustion-engine alternatives, while the other offers insight into the possibilities offered by solar energy. The BMW Museum has something for even the most casual admirer. Whether your interest is vintage automobiles, race cars, future technology, motorcycles or airplanes, there really is a little something for everyone. When you have taken in your share of history, make your way back to the main level, where you can buy a souvenir for that special enthusiast who couldn’t make the trip. Touring the BMW Munich Plant BMW offers guided tours of all its manufacturing plants throughout the world, but if you could only visit one of them, it should probably be the Munich plant. Not because it is the most technologically advanced, which it certainly isn’t, but because Munich is the heart of BMW. This is where so many of the company’s legendary models have been built. Today the factory turns our roughly 800 3 Series sedans and hatches every day (coupe and convertibles are built elsewhere), plus the company's Formula One engines.
The plant tours are conducted by language groups (English, French, and German), and must be pre-arranged. This is typically handled through your BMW retailer, and may take up to a month or more to reserve your space. The tour groups assemble in the museum lobby before making their way next door for a video presentation. As one would expect, the video offers a little background on the company and its products to get visitors primed for the grand experience. Narrating a tour to a group of 20 or so people is never an easy task, but when you factor in the pounding of presses, the whirring of robots, the popping of welders, it can be nearly impossible. To ensure that everyone has a chance to hear the entire presentation, radio headsets are issued prior to entering the plant. The system works remarkably well, even when the occasional straggler falls behind the rest of the group. Our first stop was the press room, a logical starting point for the tour since this is where raw materials are first turned into BMW parts. We watched in amazement as sheets of steel were pounded relentlessly into various forms, eventually becoming recognizable as a spare tire well. That particular press will run off batch after batch of the same part until the required number has been made. Then the tooling will be switched over, in as little as fifteen minutes, to produce another round of different parts. The press room at the Munich plant is the epitome of a classic automotive factory: loud and dirty. As the tour progresses, so does the appearance of the facilities. Our next stop is the body shop, where stationary robots dominate the scene. Here all of those various stamped panels come together to form the chassis and body, or unibody, of the car. It is at this stage that all of those raw panels begin to take on the distinctive shape of a BWM. We follow the assembly of a single chassis, watching first as the floor is constructed, then rises up with the addition of the firewall, rear fenders and eventually the roof. At the end of this line, the completed body-in-white is whisked away to receive its bolt-on panels prior to final preparation for paint.
Normally at this stage we would be shown the mechanical assembly of the car, including the “marriage” of the drivetrain and the chassis. But because of some ongoing plant maintenance, that section of the factory was closed to outside visitors. Some in the group speculated that the real reason for the closure was that the plant was tooling up for 1-Series production, but our tour guide assured us otherwise. The 1-Series will apparently be built in another facility. So we didn’t get to see the engine and chassis become one, but we were offered complementary refreshment in the BMW workers’ cafeteria. Not only was it a good time to regain some hearing quality, it was also a good opportunity to ask our guide some more particular questions. Herr Landgraf was gracious and knowledgeable, answering most of the group’s questions to their satisfaction. His knowledge of the company, its products, and the manufacturing process far exceed the scripted tour. After our quick shot of Coke, we resumed our tour by heading to my favorite place, the paint shop. Here we looked on as bare bodies were dunked and tumbled in a tank of primer. This is perhaps the most critical stage of the finishing process; proper and thorough primer application is the best defense against corrosion in the future. The primer coat is applied by a method called “cathophoresis” where the body receives a positive electrical charge, and the liquid primer is negatively charged. If you remember from fifth-grade science class, opposite electrical charges are attracted to each other. Cathophoretic priming ensures thorough application of primer, even on difficult surfaces like edges and corners. Another important step is the tumbling of the body in the tank, where trapped air pockets are allowed to escape, making sure that every crevice of the body receives appropriate coverage.
The newly primed bodies move down the line, passing through an oven for curing. Once cured, the bodies receive an application of body sealer on the underside and at critical seams. They are then held in a staging area prior to receiving their final color coat. The bodies are grouped for painting in color-batches. Thanks to modern equipment, BMW can paint as few as six cars in a row the same color before switching to a different color. This is important for a relatively small manufacturer like BMW, allowing them to remain flexible for their customers and still be efficient. Without a doubt, the paint booth is the cleanest section of the entire factory. The workers in this section wear dust-free, lint-free uniforms from head to toe, whether handling the equipment or the vehicles. The bodies enter the sterile environment of the painting booth and are immediately treated to an automated rubdown with ostrich feathers. The ostrich feathers carry a natural negative charge, attracting any stray dust particles, which carry a natural positive charge. Now free of any dust or other foreign matter, the bodies enter the first of several spraying chambers. A team of robotically controlled spray heads systematically sweeps every millimeter of a body, ejecting the finest mist of paint imaginable. Any stray paint, or overspray, is swept down and away to ensure a smooth, even finish. This process is repeated as two coats of the base color are covered with a clearcoat for depth. Painted bodies enter another oven for curing, after which they are inspected for flaws, then released for mechanical assembly and trimming. The whole painting process is remarkably clean, thanks to environmentally friendly materials and processes. The paint itself is a water-based acrylic urethane that eliminates the need for harmful and foul-smelling solvent bases like those used in the past. The process is also clean thanks to the use of a downdraft booth. Simply speaking, the cars are painted in a booth where stream of filtered air passes down over the bodies as the paint is sprayed. Any resulting overspray is “blown” downward, where it is caught by a stream of water passing underneath the conveyor line. This water is filtered, removing any paint elements from it before it goes through the system again to catch more stray paint. This system not only provides excellent finishes, but it also maintains a spotless workplace while preserving the environment.
Our tour concluded after visiting the paint shop. It was truly remarkable to see a BMW emerge from a coil of rolled steel into a finished car. And though I hope to visit other BMW plants at some point in the future, there was something special about visiting the Munich facility, the very heart of BMW. The Future is Being Built Across the street from “the bowl,” on the site of the 1972 Olympic Village, BMW is hard at work building a new visitor and deliver center. To be called “BMW Welt”, or “BMW World” in English, the new facility will rival the customer centers of its rivals, such as Volkswagen’s AutoStadt. BMW Welt will feature not only a brand new, state-of-the-art customer delivery center, but will also house shops and restaurants where new owners and visitors can take in the entire experience. Another feature will be BMW Welt Forum, a multi-function venue for art, culture, and technology. Concerts, exhibitions, and other festivities will be staged here. The museum will remain in its current location.
The architecture of this phenomenal facility will blend naturally with distinctive buildings across the street. BMW Welt is scheduled to open in spring of 2006. For more information, visit www.bmw-welt.com .
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