Rolls-Royce
Motor Cars Lagos, owned by Coscharis
Motors Plc, is the exclusive franchise owner for Rolls-Royce vehicles sales
and services in Nigeria. It currently has showrooms and workshops located both
in Lagos and Abuja
Rolls-Royce
Motor Cars is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the BMW Group and is a completely
separate company from Rolls-Royce plc, the manufacturer of aircraft engines and
propulsion systems. Over 2,000 skilled men and women are employed at the
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars’ head office and manufacturing plant at Goodwood, West
Sussex, the only place in the world where the company’s super-luxury motor cars
are hand-built.
A
statement by the automaker said the primary purpose of the Clean Room is to
provide a sterile environment within which delicate and highly bespoke items
can be assembled. The eighth generation of Rolls-Royce Phantom brings with it
an unprecedented opportunity to exhibit works of art and design within the
motor car itself, in an area named, the Gallery. The Gallery is formed of an
uninterrupted piece of glass which spans the width of Phantom’s fascia, behind
which a recess presents an illuminated stage, an area for patrons to embrace
the unique storytelling characteristic of the marque.
At the
conception of the Gallery, a requirement for clean manufacturing was identified
and extensive research was conducted in order to create a Bespoke Rolls-Royce
Clean Room at the marque’s headquarters in Goodwood, West Sussex – itself a
Global Centre of Luxury Manufacturing Excellence. The lifespan of Phantom is
remarkable, with over two-thirds of all Rolls-Royces created over the marque’s
116-year history still in road-worthy condition. It is therefore essential that
the Gallery can stand the test of time by preserving precious and personal
items for as long as the motor car itself.
Experts
from the Home of Rolls-Royce visited pharmaceutical and microprocessor Clean
Rooms to fully understand these complex manufacturing laboratories and learn of
the procedures and requirements necessary to create a medical grade, particle
free, sterile enclosure. Even a minute speck of dust would detract from the
aesthetic perfection of the Gallery. The assembly therefore requires meticulous
attention to detail.
The
Gallery Clean Room contains four medical grade, positively pressurised spaces.
A highly technical sensor continually measures the particulate concentration of
each space. Any particulates measuring above 0.001 of a micron are detected, a
staggering statistic considering a human hair is between 50-100 microns in
diameter. This process enables continual assessment and the opportunity to
identify areas for improvement. If contamination is detected, the Gallery Clean
Room associates are able to identify exactly when and where the contamination
took place, in order to improve future assembly. Planning and quality engineers
monitor daily the particle count inside the Gallery Clean Room to ensure that
no deep cleans that might interrupt daily production are required.
A
complex filtration system is built into the ceiling of the Gallery Clean Room
to continually remove unwanted particles from the re-circulating air. This
system is, for aesthetic reasons, covered in a wooden veneer – this is, after
all, situated at the Home of Rolls-Royce.
There
are only five associates at the Home of Rolls-Royce trained to operate in the
Gallery Clean Room, with only two permitted to enter at any one time. These
associates must comply with strict guidelines to prevent possible
contamination. No cosmetics, hair products or deodorant may be used.
The
first enclosure is charged with sanitisation. It is here that associates
prepare to enter the body of the Gallery Clean Room by dressing, top-down, to
reduce the risk of hair and other imperfections soiling clothing.
Medical-grade, lint free surgical clothing must be worn at all times, including
a hairnet, a sterile mask, surgical overalls and overshoes. Associates must
have previously cleaned their hands using deionised water, preventing possible
contamination from soap and regular water. Bespoke non-powdered latex gloves
have been developed specifically for Rolls-Royce to ensure moisture generated
due to perspiration in this highly pressured environment is contained 100%
within the glove.
Alongside
the Gallery Clean Room is the Logistics Enclosure, where art and engineering
first meet. The artwork enters the chamber wrapped in a protective film, inside
two hermetically sealed containers. The outer package is discarded, the inner
package is cleaned in preparation for entering the next laboratory. Componentry
enters here in an identical format.
The
Preparation Room is the next stage of this intricate journey. Entry is via an
airlock, with each room becoming further pressurised to create a compression
chamber. The increasing atmospheric pressure ensures that air only flows out of
the facility. The artwork is delicately removed from its packaging and cleaned
on a specially created machine, or ‘extract bench’. Here, any dust particles are
extracted whilst the associate uses ultra-violet light and a powerful
magnifying glass to identify any imperfections. No foreign objects are allowed
to enter this space, even paper is forbidden.
The
final enclosure is the Operation Centre, in which the micro-assembly takes
place. This space is as atmospherically pure as humanly possible, with only one
Phantom Gallery, and one Rolls-Royce Associate, permitted entry at a time. This
room is deep cleaned each week in a process that takes up to eight hours. Any
componentry entering the space must also have been through an intensive
cleaning process. All metal elements, no matter how small, must be sanitised in
an ultrasonic cleaner at 70 degrees for a period of 52 minutes. Further
ultra-violet light examinations take place before the final assembly and the
artwork is finally sealed within Phantom’s Gallery. (Thisday)
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