American-Central Manufacturing

1941 - 1945, Preguntas y discuciones tecnicas y todo lo relacionado con los jeep de la WWII.

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American-Central Manufacturing

Notapor m606paz » 01 May 2012, 10:41

TheCJ2APage escribió:
On March 10, 1941, Auburn-Central was awarded a contract to produce 1,600 Jeep bodies for Willys Overland Motors, and by the end of April, Auburn-Central built Jeep body tubs were used in Willys’ Toledo, Ohio assembly plant. Auburn-Central’s president, Harry Woodhead, was replaced by Gaunders P. Jones on June 23, 1941 and the firm continued its preparations to gear up for wartime production.

On August, 4, 1941, Willys-Overland ordered another 16,000 Jeep bodies from Auburn-Central, which was followed up in November by another order for 11,000 units. Auburn-Central’s board of directors made a patriotic gesture on March 30, 1942 when they renamed the firm the American-Central Manufacturing Co. Production of all consumer-destined steel products was halted and the firm devoted itself to military products.

For the remainder of hostilities, American Central manufactured Jeep bodies, ¼ ton Bantam trailers, and wing assemblies, bomb bay doors, gun turret decks, collector rings, and carburetor air ducts for the Consolidated-Vultee B-24 Liberator Bomber, a product of the Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation, commonly known as Convair, which resulted from a 1943 merger between Vultee and Consolidated Aircraft. Over 18,000 B-24 Liberators were built during the war, making it the most popular bomber of World War II.

From the fall of 1943, when they started supplying Jeep tubs to Ford, through 1948, Central Manufacturing was the sole producer of Jeep bodies. A composite Jeep tub that combined the best features of the Ford and Willys-Overland tubs began production in January of 1944.

As the 325,000th Jeep body was mounted to a waiting Willys chassis, the employees of American Central were awarded with the coveted Army-Navy “E” Award in a special ceremony that took place on July 22, 1944. The plant’s other accomplishments included the completion of 200,000 Bantam ¼-ton trailer bodies and the countless wing sub-assemblies that had been produced for the B-24 Liberator and Vultee A-31 Vengeance.

In a sign of good faith, Willys-Overland ordered 25,000 post-war Jeep bodies from Central on August 23, 1944.

The employees of American-Central received their second Army-Navy “E” award on January 16, 1945. The E-award was the Army-Navy Award for Excellence in War Production and was normally awarded when a firm completed a large order for the US War effort or filled an order in a short period of time.

At the ceremony, the employees would be given an enameled pin mounted on a card certifying their contribution to the war effort with a message from the president. The employer would be presented with an “E’ flag and banner and outstanding employees would be presented with a special certificate.

When the war started, another Connersville firm, Steel Kitchens Corp., formed SKC Aviation and began producing military aircraft parts and subassemblies. They were awarded with an Army-Navy “E” Award on November 26, 1943. The Steel Kitchens plant was located directly to the North of the American-Central factory and originally housed the Indiana Lamp Co. a firm that shared its ancestry with American-Central.

On February 27, 1945, the American Central Manufacturing Co purchased the SKC Aircraft/Steel Kitchens plant from its owners, Sam and Ira Block. American Central converted the plant back to the manufacture of stamped-metal appliances and began manufacturing refrigerators for the Admiral Corporation of Chicago, Illinois.

Refrigerator manufacturing required an expensive porcelain-enameling system which American-Central installed in the former Ansted Engineering plant, which was located north of the Auburn/Cord assembly plant.

The first Admiral refrigerator rolled out of the former Steel Kitchens plant that fall and on October, 23, 1945 it was presented to the Governor, Ralph Gates, for use in the Indiana State House. By early 1946, a large portion of the American-Central plant had been converted over to the manufacture of porcelain enameled steel sinks and kitchen cabinets.

In an ironic twist of fate, on November, 26, 1946 the entire American-Central operation was purchased by Aviation Corp. (AVCO), the very firm that had purchased the Cord Corporation from Errett Lobban Cord 9 years earlier. All the former American-Central operations were re-christened the American Kitchens division of AVCO Manufacturing.

By 1948 American had long completed its wartime contracts for Jeep bodies, but received a new order for an additional 45,000 bodies on December, 14, 1948, bringing the total number of Military Jeep tubs produced in Connersville to 445,000.

Excerpted below is a portion of an American Central Visitor’s Brochure dated 1948:

“Welcome to American Central Division AVCO Manufacturing Corporation, Home of American Kitchens, Styled in Steel.
“Too often people think of a manufacturing plant as a collection of bricks, steel, machinery, railroads, statistical departments, and so forth... We here at American Central are very conscious that our plant is primarily dependent on the people who make it live.

“We start in building 28 with die storage—a veritable treasure house. These dies, many worth thousands of dollars, mold or shape the parts required by their various products. They are the acme of the machinist’s art. Next stop is building 2, the steel storage warehouse. Here are great piles of sheet steel, tons of it, to meet the hungry demands of the production lines. Steel is brought to the warehouse in trucks and railroad cars. A private railroad siding shunts the cars into the unloading area, where steel is removed in slings suspended from powerful overhead cranes.

“In building 1 we encounter the press room. A thundering, clanking rumble echoes about this building as the big and little presses thump out a thousand different sheet metal parts used in the manufacturing process. This is a building of strong contrasts: A 500-ton capacity press that weighs 464,000 pounds and cost $169,204 sits close by a 5-ton capacity press that weighs 750 pounds and cost $450. A big hydraulic press requires ten men to operate it, while many small presses are controlled by a lone operator.

“In the jeep body assembly department, we find steel banging on steel, welding arcs sputtering and sending forth dancing showers of sparks. We see hundreds of small parts joined into front and rear sections of the jeeps’ steel bodies. As the bodies gradually assume recognizable shapes, they reach the joining tables, where they are welded into a complete body. Then it’s on to the metal cleansing cabinets, the paint booths, the drying ovens, final inspection, and at last the loading docks.”



More of the history of ACM here http://www.coachbuilt.com/bui/c/central/central.htm

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Interesante articulo! :D

Sobre las diferencias en las carrocerias leer viewtopic.php?t=43

Saludos :wink:
Mariano Paz
Socio n°27
1944 Ariel WNG
1945 Ford FAT
LU4ALM
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m606paz
 
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Notapor dongaston70 » 01 May 2012, 13:03

Interesante el artículo. Lindo el "cargo" del camioncito...

Un abrazo
Gastón
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