Production DAF Trucks plant awarded as "Factory of the Future"

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DAF Trucks has received the "Factory of the Future" award for its plant in Westerlo, Belgium. Over the past few years, the truck manufacturer significantly expanded the plant – and established sustainable processes.

The cab and axle manufacturing plant DAF Trucks Vlaanderen has been awarded the "Factory of the Future". The award recognizes the development of the DAF plant, based in Westerlo, Belgium, into a high-tech facility, DAF announced.

The Belgian technology association Agoria awards "Factory of the Future" certificates each year to innovative and sustainable manufacturing sites in Belgium. The award primarily references a new plant for cabs. This includes a sustainable paint shop, a highly automated body shop, and a new production line for interior paneling.

Paint shop with less overspray

The paint shop for driver's cabins has three floors, is 144 meters long, 58 meters wide, and 26 meters high. In this facility, the truck manufacturer can paint 300 cabins per day, 50 percent more compared to the previous facility. According to DAF, 3,000 colors are possible. The facility avoids 50 percent of emissions, among other things by reducing and capturing overspray.

According to the manufacturer, the air exiting the painting booths and ovens is condensed "so that it contains quite a lot of solvents, which automatically combust at a temperature of 700 to 800 degrees without the need to add gas." The thermal energy is sufficient, according to DAF, for heating the processing baths. This reduces energy consumption, and, in addition, the plant emits "besides a very small amount of CO₂ emissions only water vapor," explains DAF Trucks in a statement. The new painting plant was developed in cooperation with Cordeel Company, Eisenmann, and Dürr.

New robots and conveyor systems

In the body shop of the plant, about 130 robots and 135 fully automatic welding tongs assemble the body shells of the heavy models CF and XF in a single-line layout. The manufacturer expanded the plant, which was previously around 18,000 square meters, by about 13,000 square meters.

Gallery

The production line for interior paneling previously occupied around 16,000 square meters, with about 20,000 square meters added. The new facility includes, among other things, a main assembly line, a roof assembly line, sub-assembly lines for doors and cockpit – and a testing and inspection department. In the main assembly line, push-plate conveyors carry the cabins.

Multi-year renovation of the plant

DAF has gradually converted its production facilities over the past few years. The truck manufacturer already announced the planned expansion of the paint shop in 2015. The expansion of the cabin manufacturing began in 2019. DAF invested 100 and 200 million Euros into the projects, respectively. According to Mark Pigott, Executive Chairman of Paccar, the parent company of DAF, "Paccar and DAF have invested more than 600 million Euros in our Cab and Axle plant over the last 15 years."

About DAF Vlaanderen and Agoria

DAF opened the factory in Westerlo in 1966. DAF Vlaanderen is one of the largest companies in Belgium. About 2,600 people manufacture cabins and axles for medium and heavy-duty DAF trucks. According to Agoria, it represents more than 2,000 technology companies from the manufacturing industry and the digital and telecommunications sectors in the Belgian regions of Flanders, Wallonia, and Brussels.

Seventy percent of the companies are small and medium-sized enterprises. Agoria is the largest association within the Belgian business federation. The "Factory of the Future" certificate was presented by the Flemish Prime Minister Jan Jambon to Stijn Van Eyken, Managing Director of DAF Trucks Vlaanderen, and Danny Pieter, Manager of the cabin plant.