It was a "coronation" at which Paul Bunyan might have felt right at home.
The crown, more than 200,000 pounds of dead weight, had to be raised to the top of the stamping press by two cranes, then held suspended while millwrights effected a perfect fit between crown and press. Clearly, it was a job for Atlas.
Atlas Transfer Co., working as a subcontractor for Lathrop Co., Toledo, Ohio, is in the process of installing eight stamping presses for Honda of America's first American automobile plant in Marysville, Ohio. All components are being off-loaded from a railhead and transported one mile to the plant site on Atlas' specialized, heavy hauling multi-axle equipment.
Once Atlas' riggers and millwrights have assembled, erected and precisely leveled a press, the crowning process begins. And as the photo demonstrates, even a hundred tons is not too much for "the Atlas touch."
But installing stamping presses is just part of Atlas' involvement with the new Honda plant. Working side by side with Honda's engineers, Atlas is also installing injection molding presses for plastics and the plant's automated welding line, developed in Japan and shipped to Marysville for assembly.