December 2018 December 2018 | Page 28

made 28 E-Z-GO golf cart on assembly line at Textron plant 2 Part WWW.GOLFCAROPTIONS.COM The Manufacturing Process Fabrication of floor and body panels 1. The floor and body panels are made of sheet steel, aluminum, or fiberglass. If sheet metal is used the metal is cut to size in a sheet metal shear, a machine that cuts it with giant scissors. It is then fed into a roll forming machine, which shapes the metal by passing it over contoured forming rolls. If fiberglass is the chosen material, the floor and body panels are formed as one piece by inserting layers of resin-coated fiberglass in a mold and allowing them to harden. Chassis construction and painting 2. Tubular steel, which resembles square bicycle handlebars, is cut to size and the edges beveled (cut at an angle of less than 90 degrees) to pre- pare them for welding. The cut, beveled pieces are then placed in a welding fixture, and the chassis, or frame, is arc-welded. In this process, an electric current is fed out of the welding torch through a