Bofors, the giant 300-year-old weapons manufacturer serving the transportation industry.

Volvo-Köpingverken , expert gear-cutters and builders of the Volvo transmissions. 11

Olofström, the two-century-old forge which presses highest quality sheet steel into Volvo body stampings. 15

Volvo-Penta of Skövde, producers of the Volvo power unit and one of the oldest-established engine builders in Europe. 20

Volvo of Gothenburg , where power lines converge, where all components are assembled,

where cars are rust-proofed and given many coats of finish in one of the world's mostmodern painting plants, and where everything is inspected-thoroughly and repeatedly. 23

All the photographs in this brochure are by Hans Hammarskiöld except the cover, the action shot on page 10 and the picture on page 31.

"WHAT'S BEHIND...

MEET PHILIP AND JANIS BENSON of Minneapolis, Min-nesota. They love their Volvo. Every day they get a new

thrill out of its wonderful driving characteristics-its road-ability, convenience, comfort, pick-up, the way it "parks on adime," and above all, the honest quality built into every inch.They often wondered, "How can a car be this good?" WhenPhil Benson, instructor at the University of Minnesota, re-ceived a year's fellowship from the American-ScandinavianFoundation to study theater in Sweden, he and Janis thought,"Aha! Sweden-now we can drop in and find out what's behind

VOLVO QUALITY?"

The most convenient and pleasantroute to Sweden is with SAS (youknow-the Scandinavian airlinethat's famous for its safety, comfortand superb cuisine). No doubt aboutit-the Bensons travel SAS. Herethey debark at Gothenburg from anSAS flagship.

A first glimpse o f the Volvo plant. Those strange-looking "mushrooms" helpventilate the spray booths in the painting department.

President Gunnar Engellau bids Mr. and Mrs. Benson "Välkomna" to Volvo.

Welcome to Volvoof Sweden

Volvo headquarters are located inGothenburg, Sweden's second largestcity, her principal port. It's an idealspot for the company which isSweden's largest exporter to theUnited States. When the Bensonsask to look at the plant, Volvo'sPresident, Gunnar Engellau, sug-gests that they start their tour byvisiting Volvo suppliers. "They laythe foundation for Volvo quality.It's a solid base which we can buildupon here at Gothenburg to achievethe results which you and thousandsof other Americans have becomeacquainted with the past few years,"

says Mr. Engellau. "You reallyought to begin with the forests,mountains, and rivers up North.That's where we get our raw mater-ials-plus the fuel and power todrive our factories."

The itinerary is set, and Mr.Engellau has loaned the Ben-sons a Volvo for their tour.They'll travel through centraland southern Sweden to seeVolvo's four largest sub-assembly suppliers. They'llalso see some o f the mostbeautiful scenery in Sweden.

Finishing crankshaft forgings for Volvo in a duplex hammer whichdevelops 290,000 foot-pounds.

First stop on the Volvo tour is atypically Swedish establishment: anultra-modern factory with severalhundred years of experience.

Bofors, 130 yearsolder thanthe United States

There are many companies, especi-ally in the machine-building andmining industries, whose historiesdate back to the misty beginnings ofSwedish economic life. Often theybegan as a small forge or smithy,which grew into a bruk. The bruk,a typically Swedish institution, wasoriginally a type of country estateon which iron-melting, rather thanagriculture, was the chief occupation.From these early manorial establish-ments, an unbroken process of eco-nomic development led to the mod-ern industrial concerns of today.One of the oldest and largest of theseis the Bofors Company, founded in1646 as a village smithy.Today Bofors is a world renownedweapons-maker. The Bofors 40-mm.automatic gun, for example, wasperhaps the most widely employedpiece of artillery in World War II.Volvo now draws upon the vastexperience and resources of Boforsfor more peaceful ends. Crank-shafts, gear blanks, and other Volvoforgings and steel parts which havehelped create the Volvo reputationfor quality come from Bofors.

Testing Volvo gearshift forks electroinductively in a Magnaflux machine.

Wooden model of the first Bofors forge.

Tapping a test melt in the laboratory-one stagein the constant succession of experiments andtests conducted at Bofors with the object of find-ing new and better materials for Volvo. (top left)

A piece o f steel after spectrographic analysis o fits composition.

Bofors makes forgings for Volvo crankshafts,gears, and other parts. These blanks are inspect-ed meticulously for correct form and structure,and given a rough machining before shipment.

A

Tapping steel from a 35-ton electric arc furnace.

This is what happened to a Volvo in the gruelling Midnight Sun Rally last year. In spite of therough treatment, Gunnar Andersson drove his Volvo to victory, another proof of Volvo's excep-tional strength and durability.

t

With the sound of the giant Boforsforging hammers still ringing intheir ears, the Bensons go on to

Köping-.---perhapsthe most exactingmanufacturer inSweden

Volvo-Köpingverken, though con-siderably younger than Bofors, hasnevertheless been making precisionparts for more than one hundredyears. Before Volvo entered thepicture, machine tools were the chiefKöping product. It was only a shortstep to transmissions and differen-tials, which require the same highprecision and strength in about thesame places.Now, all gear parts come to Volvofrom Köping, including the four-speed synchromesh transmission

I n the inspection room, spot samples undergo severalkinds o f high-precision checks. The picture shows twogears, enlarged twenty times on a screen to reveal defects

i n tooth contour and mesh.

A crucial final operation on gears. A cluster o f Volvo first-speed gears on its way into the Swedish-American Lindbergffurnace . A protective atmosphere prevents oxidation whilethe gears harden.

Parts for the rear axle assembly coming out o f the continuousheat-treating furnace.

1 1

12

Here's a man who's paid to wear out Volvotransmissions. It's monotonous work-and slow,too. He listens with his stethoscope to detectchanges in the gear sounds.

Transmissions are pulled off the line for loadingand deflection tests. Any bending or otherchanges in the gears under maximum load arerevealed by instruments.

which makes Volvo one of theworld's easiest cars to drive. A largeproportion of the machine tools usedin the factory are built by Köpingitself.As has been said, Köping is a pre-cision plant. Everything must fitperfectly if the gears are to performsmoothly, silently, and safely.The Köping workers are congenialpeople, and are always ready to takea liberal view of things-except whenthey find a part which deviates fromthe prescribed dimensions.Inspection stations are closely spacedin the Köping plant and a carefultolerance check follows every opera-tion. The well equipped developmentlaboratory carries out a great dealof additional inspection and testing.This laboratory makes electronic,acoustical, and magnetic examina-tions, brutal fatigue tests, as well asvisual inspections with enlargementup to 50,000 times.

The Köping factory has a huge stockroomm con-taining nothing but inspection instruments. Thepicture shows a few of them.

The gauges, too, must be checkedwith gauge blocks. Here we see ameasuring jig for a gear beingchecked to a guaranteed toleranceof four micro-inches. All the hun-dreds of thousands of measuringtools and gauges are similarly in-spected.

One of the great resources of the Volvo Company,and one of the factors which make it possible forSwedish automobile manufacturers to challengetheir mighty billion-dollar competitors, is theSwedish tradition of craftsmanship-a traditionwhich can hardly be matched elsewhere. Bofors,Köping, Olofström, and many other builders ofVolvo components have workers, engineers, andoffice employees whose fathers and grandfathersserved the same firm-sometimes even in thesame kind of job.

Illustrating this personal tradition o f conscien-tious workmanship, here are three generationsof Erikssons-Helge, his father Fredrik, andhis grandfather Karl-all sheet-metal work-ers in the Olofström plant. Karl Eriksson, whois now 86 years old and retired on pension yearsago, worked at Olofström for 60 years. Karl'sfather, too, was a sheet-metal worker at Olof -ström and was employed there for more than60 years, and Karl believes that even his grand-father was an Olofström worker.

Olofström-200years on the jobYou can argue about what is themost important part of a car, but inan accident there's no question. Astrong, well-made body is your bestlife insurance. To see how Volvohandles this detail, Mr. and Mrs.Benson go on to Olofströms Brukin Olofström-probably the onlycommunity in Sweden bearing theChristian name of a commoner andindustrialist. Here they meet stillanother of those robust veteranswho seem more the rule than theexception in the Swedish industry.Olofströms Bruk, founded in the18th century, soon grew to be thelargest plate and sheet-metal worksin Scandinavia and one of the largestin Europe. A walk through the vastbays of the Olofström plant is anexciting, almost alarming experience.There are an extraordinary numberof things happening at once, and thenoise is deafening. Giant presses-among the largest in Europe-cutand shape the roofs, sides, floors, andother Volvo body parts with amazing

Making the body dies is expensive, hard, slowwork requiring great precision. Here we see aside panel die being shaved to size. The red objectin the middle is a plastic pattern from which thediemakers work.

Inspection begins even before the work gets underway. Tests are made, both in the laboratory andin the plant. One o f them is the Eriksson test,designed to show the workability of the metal.There must be no cracks formed during pressing.

Welding the car floor.

speed. Long trains of loaded trucksrush up and down the aisles. Mech-anical hands move bodies and panelsin various stages of assembly. Andevery second minute an all-weldedsteel body comes off the assemblyline to be greased and loaded on toa railroad car for shipment to Volvoin Gothenburg.

The hubcaps are an instance of the pains takenat Volvo to achieve superior quality. The capsare double, with steel inside and brass outside.The brass does not rust, and it provides a moreadhesive base for chromium. The brass and steellayers are being joined here.

Extreme care is required. Here the windowopenings are being fixed in order to detecti mmediately the slightest tendency towardsdeviation. The readings obtained must be re-corded for the guidance o f the assemblers at theVolvo factory.

Sheet steel itself is a bulky and inexact material.To assure exact and unvarying dimensions, awooden prototype is built. All measurements aretaken from this model.

Swedish motorists want their car to take themall the way to a weekend cottage even if the roaddoesn't! Volvo specializes in building vehicleswhich can master the very worst roads.

All crankshafts and camshafts must passMagnaflux inspection, which reveals cracksinvisible to the eye, before the parts are fitted intothe engine. This safety precaution is typical ofVolvo-Penta working methods. All the shaftforgings passed the same inspection at Bofors.

In addition to routine inspections, samples aretaken from every lot o f parts. Above, an inspec-tion o f material and dimensions. Blocks, cylinderheads, gears and other parts are sawed throughat all points, and are closely examined andmeasured.

All the bearing shells are placed in specialfixtures where they are subjected to the samepressure as in the engine, and under this condi-tion the dimensions vital to bearing performanceare measured.

Volvo is a Latin word.It means I roll.

But NO VOLVOROLLSWITHOUTAN ENGINE

Next stop for the Bensons is theVolvo-Penta factory in the town ofSkövde. Volvo-Penta is one of theyounger Volvo suppliers. The com-pany was not founded until 1868,but its marine engines had alreadyestablished an international reputa-tion by the time the Volvo Companybegan operations. Today, Volvo-

Block castings and cylinder heads on a conveyor.Here, too, precision is the rule. The temperatureo f the iron is taken before pouring. 1f it shoulddeviate from the stipulated 2,624° F. by morethan 50° F. the ladle goes back to the holdingfu rnace. The iron is alloyed to Volvo's specifica-tions. Nine types of ferrous alloys are used inthe Volvo engine.

The inspection points areclosely spaced on the

assembly line, too. Forinstance, vital bolts aredrawn up with torque-

wrenches.

To prepare a steady supply o f skilledcraftsmen, Volvo-Penta has set up avocational school having a three-yearcurriculum and equipped with thelatest machines. The pupils start totake part in production during theirsecond year. One o f the pupils'assignments is to cut engines intodemonstration sectioned units for theuse o f the Sales Division.

All engines are thoroughly test-run 18 minuteswith gasoline, then inspected and adjusted.

Penta is one of the largest and mostmodern engine manufacturers inEurope, with high-efficiency equip-ment and automation wherever qual-ity can benefit. That this factorybuilds an engine which is a paragonof strength, reliability, and economyis not surprising. The Volvo engine,as built by Penta, is one of the mostmeticulously designed engines in theworld, made of the finest materials,and under constant improvement.The Volvo-Penta factory is, if any-thing, even less tolerant on thequestion of tolerances than theKöping plant. The allowances areminute, and Penta tries continu-ously to make them even smaller.

' Inspection is 100 per cent. All sup-plied parts, as well as all parts madeat Volvo-Penta, are inspected, thelatter after every operation as a rule.The labor which goes into Volvoengines is treated in the same exact-ing manner. For every job, there isa carefully prepared report of thequalities required of the man who isto perform it. Volvo-Penta tries tofind a man for each job who fits itexactly. The result is extraordinaryefficiency paired with high employeemorale, since everyone has a job suit-ed to him. Another indication of thecareful efficiency engineering at Vol-vo-Penta is the fact that this planthas the lowest accident rate of allSwedish heavy industry, despite themolten iron and other dangerousmaterials handled. There are only1.1 accidents per million workinghours!

Back tothe starting placeVOLVO ofGOTHENBURG

-where it's all puttogether

In Sweden, with itswide extremes ofclimate, a car must beable to take whatevercomes along inthe way of weather.And an occasionalVolvo-owner innorthern Sweden maywell decide to takehis car along ona vacation trip toAfrica! That's whythe Volvo developmentlaboratory putsengines throughconditions which poseevery imaginablechallenge. Here is aVolvo engine whichhas been chilled down to40 deg. below zero-not unusual in the farnorth of Sweden.

The large Volvodevelopment lab isalways working towardsthe future. Herecars and engines aretortured to the limits ofendurance. Here partsare analyzed. Here thesearch for new materialsand methods never ends.The picture showsVolvo developmentengineers photographingthe structure of steelthrough a microscope.

Volvo headquarters in Gothenburgwas the starting point as well as thefinish line for the Bensons' tour, justas it is the first and last step on theway from the Volvo idea to the Vol-vo car. All the signals are called inGothenburg. The development labo-ratory, engineering division, draftingrooms, research division, testingrooms, the executive offices andsales division-all are here. Volvo ofGothenburg is both heart and brain,directing the widespread teamworkbehind the Volvo automobile.All parts and sub-assemblies, in anever-ending stream, flow in toGothenburg from suppliers and sub-sidiaries in all parts of Sweden.

Cars are picked at random for a run on Volvo's"washboard" which will do things to an auto-mobile that even the worst roads in Swedencouldn't duplicate.

One of the spray booths inthe painting department at Volvo.Volvo has one o f themost advanced painting shopsin the world with automaticand manual spraying. Althougha never-ending stream of carsare sprayed with enamelsin the spray booth, the air isalways fresh and perfectlyfree from paint particles-theventilation system renewingthe air 650 times per hour!

All Volvo bodies arerust-proofed throughout. TheVolvo rust-proofing plantis one o f the most modern inthe world. During theone-hour trip the car bodiesare degreased, rinsed,phosphatized, dried, andpartly dipped in apaint-bath. They come outwith every inch rust-proofed.

The Volvo final assembly line. The operations are efficient andprecise, and the inspectors-as in all Volvo departments-arehighly skilled.

From these elements is producedthe best-selling car in Sweden, victorover all foreign competition, victoreven over the habitual Swedish loveof all that comes from abroad..Every Volvo owner, regardless ofnationality, loves his car. It's fast,solidly built, durable, economical,easy to drive, maneuver and park.Something more: it's got that inde-finable charm and personality whichmake it stand out from all other cars.

All wheels are balanced at the Volvo plant before assembly-aguarantee of maximum safety and minimum tire wear.

Inspection at VolvoThe Volvo inspection system istough right from the start. All pur-chased materials and componentsare inspected at 40-odd stations.Then, as seen on the facing page,there are three inspections beforepainting; five inspections on thepaint line; six inspections on theassembly line; inspections with lotsof controls during the test-run; twoinspections in the tune-up depart-ment; one hydrostatic test; one in-spection in the rinsing department;and a meticulous final inspection.All Volvos go through the samescrutiny. In addition, there are agreat many random checks whichcannot be adequately described here.It is worth noting that each andevery inspection on the assemblyline includes from nineteen to forty-eight points, and that the inspectionsystem itself is, in turn, rigorouslyinspected.

Testing springs at one of the forty inspec-tion stations for purchased supplies.

Inspection o f enamel base coat afterspraying.

Inspecting metal on newly-arrived bodiesafter degreasing.

Inspection o f enamel base coat aftersanding.

Inspection o f brake cylinder for fluid,inspection of steering, motor and othercomponents.

Inspection o f lights, doors, wiring, gaskets-just about everything.

Inspection o f front-end assembly work,heating system, and related parts.

Inspection to see that any flaws foundduring test-run and in previous inspectionshave been corrected, plus a last-usuallyfruitless-search for faults.

Five-mile test-run and tune-upof all accessories and controls.

Final inspection and final adjust-ment o f steering wheel.

Inspection of coolant thermometer for correctreading.

Inspecting to make sure that any flawsfound in previous inspection have beencorrected.

Inspection o f enamel top coat.

Overall final body examination beforerust-proofing.

Final inspection of all painted surfaces.

The painting department: inspection ofpriming after watersanding.

Inspection o f electrical equipment.

Inspection o f rear axle housing and othersub-chassis elements for secure driving.

Final inspection of all functions: checkingwheel nuts with torque-wrench.

Inspection for flawless surface finish. Final approval.

The water test. If the car gets through thishigh-pressure water dunking, it's notlikely to leak later.

Inspection o f enamel and trim beforepolishing.

that made some of our neighbors abit envious, is due largely to theconscientious and ambitious engin-eering and manufacturing special-ists which Volvo has selected tobuild its subassemblies. You've beenvery lucky."Mr. Engellau smiles. "Not justlucky. We've picked our subcon-tractors with great care. You visitedfour of them, but actually we haveabout one hundred and fifty suppli-ers in all parts of Sweden, all ofwhom have the same attitude to-wards their' job-the same profes-sional pride, you might say-as thoseyou've seen. Every one of themsends us a product which can hardlybe equaled anywhere. Volvo-ownedcompanies and subsidiaries are justas uncompromising when it comesto quality. One of them is SvenskaFlygmotor AB (the Swedish AircraftEngine Co.), which makes all the jetand combustion engines of theSwedish Air Force as well as veryadvanced printing presses for theinternational market.""And you still think you need therigorous inspection system you havehere at the Volvo plant?" Bensonasks."Yes, we do. We have completeconfidence in our contractors, butwe still don't want anything left tochance. The possibility of any com-bination of errors affecting thequality of our automobiles must beeliminated. We're, naturally, proudof the cars we build, and we want allVolvo owners, whether in Gothen-burg, San Francisco, Yokohama,Santiago, or Minneapolis, to havethe same pride and pleasure in theirown Volvo.""Funny, that's just the way I feel!"says Philip Benson. And Janis agrees.

The best components fromthe best suppliers make the bestcars-that's the Volvo program

The Volvo tour is now over, andPhilip and Janis are discussing whatthey've seen with the President ofthe Volvo Company."Well, Mr. Benson, do you thinkyou've found the answer to yourquestion, What's behind Volvoquality?""Yes, now I realize that the qualitymy wife and I admired so much, and

All this

is behind world-famous

Swedish quality-

the quality that identifies

VOLVOof Sweden

I NTRODUCING YOU TO THEVOLVO 122 S a beauty with many gracesA smart car embodying the sturdy qualities of engineering achievement and the restrainedbeauty of outstanding Scandinavian design.Lines of grace that create true joy of ownership for the discriminating motorist. From anyviewpoint and down to the smallest detail, the V 0 L V 0 122 S is a perfect example ofunobtrusive continental elegance that must be seen and experienced to be truly appreciated.A skilful blend of representative and sports characteristics, roominess and strength, thiscar is the natural choice of all those who value the subtle combination of these qualitieswhile the range of body tones available is well in keeping with the personality of the car.The traditional aptness of Scandinavian styling and practical experience of the rigorousSwedish winters are responsible for the functional and graceful bodywork lines and travelingcomfort even in the most severe weather and on the worst roads.Generations of precision engineering lie behind the outstanding quality of manufacture andall the material used to build this graceful car.