The lengths people go to protect cars

[FenPhen]

Sonic device protects Nissan inventory from hail (http://www.detnews.com/2004/autosinsider/0402/07/autos-57670.htm)
(pretty spiffy actually)

[Plaz]

Sonic device protects Nissan inventory from hail (http://www.detnews.com/2004/autosinsider/0402/07/autos-57670.htm)
(pretty spiffy actually)

That IS spiffy! Though I wouldn't want to live nearby.

[Freaky_Monkey]

Have they not heard of those strange things that people put over things to stop them getting wet. Now what are they called again??? Oh wait... A roof!

[dhabes]

what is your point about roofs. The article talks about sound waves breaking up hail over the nissan factory so that when it hails, the entire lot of newly produced cars doesnt undergo millions of dollars of damages. However it does suck that someone 8 miles away said they could hear it all morning.

[Freaky_Monkey]

The point is simple: if you put a roof over the cars, then the hail doesn't get to them. Hence you don't need to install (a) hail dissipation devices, (b) noise abatement fences, and (c) extra lawyers to protect you from the inevitable lawsuits.

[Technic]

The point is simple: if you put a roof over the cars, then the hail doesn't get to them. Hence you don't need to install (a) hail dissipation devices, (b) noise abatement fences, and (c) extra lawyers to protect you from the inevitable lawsuits.

... the article talks about protecting the vehicles at the shipping yard. Normally this will be in the hundreds or thousands of vehicles range. A roof over these many vehicles probably is not feasible in a shipping yard, and if it is possible to put a roof, which I doubt it, it should be more costly to implement than this hail machine. :confused:

[Freaky_Monkey]

... the article talks about protecting the vehicles at the shipping yard. Normally this will be in the hundreds or thousands of vehicles range. A roof over these many vehicles probably is not feasible in a shipping yard, and if it is possible to put a roof, which I doubt it, it should be more costly to implement than this hail machine. :confused:
I beg to differ. For a start, from Nissan:
?Over the past years, Nissan has incurred literally millions of dollars from hail damage.

From the Wallenius Wilhelmsen website (http://www.2wglobal.com/www/WEP/Ocean/terminal/southampton.jsp):
The terminal also features a multi storey car park providing the equivalent of almost five hectares of car storage on a footprint of approximately one hectare and can accommodate up to 3,120 cars at any one time. The car park and an existing dedicated storage site are expected to give the Southampton Euro Terminal a car-handling capacity at the port of 357,000 vehicles per annum, in addition to other rolling and static cargo.
This is at the port at which all cars destined for the UK transported by Wallenius enter the UK (including all BMW's except the MINI and Rolls Royce). So yes, it is entirely feasible to build a roof over a large car park.

Finally, on to the maths: Nissan currently incur "millions of dollars" of extra cost from the hail damage. Yes, a roof or multi-storey car park is going to cost you millions of dollars, but you only build the roof once, whereas you get hailstorms every year. The cost of fixing the damage vs. the cost of the car park show that a covered car park can pay for itself in a single hail storm.

Now, add in the cost of the local residents suing Nissan for the noise generated by the sonic protection devices, and the cost of their noise abatement fence (which will need to be pretty high!). For the covered version, you have an annual maintenance cost which will be relatively low. All of a sudden, building a covered car park starts to make sound economical sense.

[Technic]

I beg to differ. For a start, from Nissan:
?Over the past years, Nissan has incurred literally millions of dollars from hail damage.

From the Wallenius Wilhelmsen website (http://www.2wglobal.com/www/WEP/Ocean/terminal/southampton.jsp):
The terminal also features a multi storey car park providing the equivalent of almost five hectares of car storage on a footprint of approximately one hectare and can accommodate up to 3,120 cars at any one time. The car park and an existing dedicated storage site are expected to give the Southampton Euro Terminal a car-handling capacity at the port of 357,000 vehicles per annum, in addition to other rolling and static cargo.
This is at the port at which all cars destined for the UK transported by Wallenius enter the UK (including all BMW's except the MINI and Rolls Royce). So yes, it is entirely feasible to build a roof over a large car park.

Finally, on to the maths: Nissan currently incur "millions of dollars" of extra cost from the hail damage. Yes, a roof or multi-storey car park is going to cost you millions of dollars, but you only build the roof once, whereas you get hailstorms every year. The cost of fixing the damage vs. the cost of the car park show that a covered car park can pay for itself in a single hail storm.

Now, add in the cost of the local residents suing Nissan for the noise generated by the sonic protection devices, and the cost of their noise abatement fence (which will need to be pretty high!). For the covered version, you have an annual maintenance cost which will be relatively low. All of a sudden, building a covered car park starts to make sound economical sense.

Good point... :thumbup:

Nevertheless, the shipping yard is at Nissan's plant, not at the shipping port. I guess that this machine is still cheaper than a roof in the short term for Nissan according to whoever made that decision, though...