Rouge: Pictured in Its Prime

22. Spring and Upset

22 SPRING AND UPSET The spring-and-upset building of the Rouge Plant was about the same size as the pressed-steel building and was attached to its north end.The upper floors of the two buildings together formed a bridge over Road 4 of the plant. The spring-and-upset building was noted for being the greatest electrical heat-treat furnace installation in the world. By the 1930s, the drop-forge department and the spring department each had more than eighty electric furnaces. All of these furnaces were pyrometrically controlled, and in many of the furnaces the automotive parts were automatically fed and discharged. Many small automotive parts were conveyed to the furnaces in baskets on conveyors to be heat-treated and annealed. Drop forging was used to shape such parts as connecting rods and front axles. Leaf springs in the early days had to be heat-treated leaf by leaf in order to temper the steel and allow the leaves to be pressed into the proper shape. Machines were developed, however, to shape and temper in one operation. As in the pressed-steel building, an overhead conveyor moved finished parts directly from the spring-and-upset building to the B building for assembly into vehicles or to loading docks for shipment elsewhere. 141 The spring-and-upset building along the east side of the pressed-steel building on July 23, 1936. (833.66516) 142 Men operate drop hammers forging automotive connecting rods in March 1936. (833. 65507) 143 Above: In 1937, the forging press (far left) is equipped with giant servo manipulating controls to grip and hold a large piece of steel while it is being forged. (833.69548) Left: Drop-forging front axles for Ford cars in May 1938. (833.70131-B) 144 Above: Dick electric furnaces used for heat-treating front axles in 1932. As the axles leave the furnaces, they are hung by hand on the passing conveyor. (833.56767-7) Right: A battery of drill presses drill holes through Ford 1934 front axles. Each worker keeps several presses in operation. The steel turnings are saved and melted as scrap. (833.59369) 145 Above: One of several electric furnaces used to heat-treat leaf-spring steel. (833.56101) Left: Machine for bending leaves for Model A leaf springs in April 1931. (833.56101-4) ...