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Laughing at alignment on Ford's site
- Thread starter sharpcode
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Well.. I know a lot about this issue - I was a Sr. Program Manager at the company that manufactures these and most other Ford emblems and badges (plus lots for all other domestic & foreign automakers).
The lettering is incased in a black foam liner (carrier) that spaces and positions each letter accordingly. There is clear film over the top visual side of the letters in the foam liner and a white backing liner on the back sticky side of the letters.
The top clear film is sticky on the side that is up against the letters in the black foam liner. This is so that when the white liner is remover for application at the assembly plant, the letters stay in place and in position in the foam liner because they stick to the clear liner. Here is where the issue happens, sometimes when the entire carrier is put into the wet-out machine at the assembly plant and then the white liner is removed, a letter or two, etc. can stick to the white liner instead of staying stuck to the sticky clear liner. Assembly line workers pull off the letters that stuck to the white liner and shove them back into the off foam carrier - If this is not done carefully and miticulously, you will end up with letters crooked on the hood.
It has always been a challenge to find materails that aren't too sticky or not sticky enough to accomplish the assembly task with the clear and white liner material.
The lettering is incased in a black foam liner (carrier) that spaces and positions each letter accordingly. There is clear film over the top visual side of the letters in the foam liner and a white backing liner on the back sticky side of the letters.
The top clear film is sticky on the side that is up against the letters in the black foam liner. This is so that when the white liner is remover for application at the assembly plant, the letters stay in place and in position in the foam liner because they stick to the clear liner. Here is where the issue happens, sometimes when the entire carrier is put into the wet-out machine at the assembly plant and then the white liner is removed, a letter or two, etc. can stick to the white liner instead of staying stuck to the sticky clear liner. Assembly line workers pull off the letters that stuck to the white liner and shove them back into the off foam carrier - If this is not done carefully and miticulously, you will end up with letters crooked on the hood.
It has always been a challenge to find materails that aren't too sticky or not sticky enough to accomplish the assembly task with the clear and white liner material.
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Thread Starter
#4
That's super interesting! Thanks for the background on this. I bet humidity changes day-to-day could play a part in this too. If it's not obvious when you get it, and you only realize after you've installed it, it would be a bit of a chore to fix. It's odd that the photo advertising the product suffers from this issue though! Goes to show that the original factory likely has better installation methods than you would have at home.
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The factory has a wet-out machine custom built for each and every emblem on a vehicle. Wet-out (which is kind of a strange term) means to fully push each emblem or logo that is attached with double sided tape, 100% against the surface it is to adhere to in order to achieve 100% tape to surface adhesion. Anyway, the wet out machine fixture locates these particular letters that are in the black foam carrier via dowel pins that poke through the (5) round locating holes you see in the picture. The wet-out machine places the letters on the vehicle in whatever orientation the letters are in within the carrier. The wet-out machine only centers the letters (up, down, right & left) on the hood and pushes them onto the hood surface. It has nearly nothing to do with the specific orientation or spacing of each of the letters. **If any letter is crooked in the carrier for whatever reason from the manufacturer, they will of course end up being installed on the hood crooked as well. A crooked letter is not always the fault of a line worker.
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It's crazy to see and to know how much technology and assembly and processing that goes into vehicle badging. It is a lot. I launched the current "7" fender badges on F150's, the previouse to 2024 Ranger fender badges, Powerboost and Powerstroke door badges, Mustang rear appliques, King Ranch Badges, and many, many, others. Nearly every Ford oval on Ford vehicles is produced there as well.
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Thread Starter
#8
For something that at face is so simple (sticking letters on a hood), it's amazing the machinery and process needed to do this at scale! It would be cool to see this on something like "How it's Made", but the only thing close I found was the making of the Porsche emblem, which is also pretty ridiculous.
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