Nissan has developed a new method to keep old cars alive



It’s called dual-sided dieless forming and the method will see the use of robots to makes car parts for discontinued models out of sheet steel.

The proprietary technique uses two synchronised robots working on opposite ends of a steel sheet, using diamond-coated tools to gradually shape the steel.

Once thought to be too difficult to commercialise due to the complexity of programming two robots to operate synchronously, the new technique now makes it commercially-viable to produce and sell replacement parts in small volumes for cars that Nissan no longer makes.

This was also not possible before due to the long lead times to develop and make dies for stamped parts while existing techniques have primarily relied on single-sided forming, which limits the complexity of shapes that can be created.

By placing robots and tools on opposite sides of a steel sheet coupled with advanced programming to control the robot’s accuracy, they can now create more detailed convex and concave shapes.

Nissan is a firm believer in keeping its car alive and well. In recent times, they’ve also announced that the engines for the Nissan Skyline R32 along with other official parts for the R33 and R34 will be reproduced through the “Nismo Heritage programme”.


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