There are
a good deal of things that I haven’t even touched on regarding machining, but lets look at one specific one in some more detail.
NC machining began, more or less, at the same time as the helicopter. Parsons’ rotor segments were so damned hard to make by hand that he had to develop some way to do so reliably and repeatably- it started with Pratt Whitneys tracers, moved to punch card controlled hydraulics and motors, and finally tape controlled nc devices that could make complex shapes.
This is a huge deal. Not just because it makes things easier to manufacture, but because it makes things possible to manufacture that were never possible before. Like quiet gearboxes and propellors that don’t cavitate.
The Russians knew this too. And if you think espionage only takes place in bond books, google “Toshiba scandal”. In the mid 80’s, Toshiba and Kongsberg sold really high tech equipment to the Russians, and all of a sudden, Russian submarines were very quiet.
The Japanese were only a young man’s lifetime away from receipt of the only nuclear weapon ever used in war. They were scared of the Russians and of the US. They didn’t do this lightly, they did this because they knew that the more the two superpowers concentrated on each other, the easier Japan’s life would be. (Well, probably not all Japanese, but certainly the people responsible for cutting this deal)
This tech allowed the Russians to get ahead, perhaps further ahead than they ever would have been able to do by espionage, and it has been a big deal.
I have, in my capability as a robotics guy, had to have some dealings with the office of naval research. They take this very seriously.
Anyway, just because manufacturing is common doesn’t mean it’s always boring.
10 comments Og | Uncategorized
Manufacturing is never boring. I love walking around my customer’s plants seeing stuff created from raw material. Metal and electronics and wires turn into pumps and motors. A broach rips through steel to turn a round hole square in what will become a bearing for a disc harrow. Injection mold machines, CNC and screw machines, grinders and welders create the goods that fuel the economy. Man’ s genius is on display in every plant visit.
Manufacturing is key to a lot of things that we take for granted. Big stuff is really interesting to see made. Looking at old farm equipment against the new stuff is really an enlightening experience.
Og, Tam took her blog private. Did some one piss her off again?
Indeed.shes on facebook and twitter.
One of the lessons I’ve managed to learn is that the more common or mundane something seems to be the more worthy it can be of some attention.
Some of the most everyday objects can be utterly fascinating. For anyone that raises an eyebrow at the idea I’d suggest looking at how traffic lights work.
Appreciate the ongoing lessons.
BGM
There are some knuckledraggers here at the pentagon that think 3d printing is a national security threat. That’s because they don’t understand what the inside of a modern factory looks like. The read something on the internet and it changes the world for them.
Yep, Hale, most people have no idea that the afghans are making aks out of shovels and pipe.
I used to work for a manufacturer of huge mining gear. We transferred punched paper tape for the plasma cutters to 3.5 inch floppy’s. I was elbow deep in that project.
We had a reader hooked up to the IBM 286, 0 wait state pc. I had a macro program running that would do all the key strokes for me. Took weeks to copy all the paper rolls. I was always amazed at the ingenuity that went in to NC and CNC equipment.
Cool plant, we made almost everything in house. Our trucks and loaders were diesel electric, just like a train.
Thanks for the memories!
Thanks, Og. I never knew that the Japanese were the reason for my job getting harder (I was once a USN antisub warfare tech, back in the prehistoric times)
“Indeed.shes on facebook and twitter.”
Damn. That figures. I’m not a Twit, nor do I access the Book of Faces. (Sigh.)
One of my uncles was heavily involved in the GE plant in Evendale, OH making very early jet engines culminating in the mighty J-79. He told me way back in the late 60’s – early 70’s that NC was the only way the engines could be mass produced.
Russ