The finest German Engineering
Time to get bloggin' again.
I've been working at Bank of America, keeping those servers humming. We are also putting in a fiber backbone for a new fire alarm system. Why they need that much bandwith for a fire alarm is beyond me, but they have plenty of money. It's not a bad job, but it does have it's pitfalls. Since the Villa Park is considered a "critical" facility, we are subject to freezes. Simply put, they don't want anyone working in a computer room while there is any possibility that a critical system could fail and there would be no redundancy. That means if they take a system down in say San Francisco, we can't work in Richmond. Apparently they have something going on because practically the whole months of October, November, and December are under a freeze. Which brings me to the title of this post.
For the past two weeks, I've been working at Hauni Maschinebau AG. They build high speed cigarette machines for the tobacco industry. They build them from scratch. This is the first time I have ever witnessed German engineering firsthand. The first thing we were told is to take all of our tools off of the job. They are not up to "specification". They then proceeded to provide each electrician with a rolling drawered tool chest filled with the finest tools I have ever had the pleasure to work with. Willy Hahn screwdrivers including hex, torx and precision phillips and slots. Blackhawk stubby ratcheting wrench sets. A variety of metric crimp tools. Swedish made diagonal cutters, and the finest pliers in the business, good old American made Kleins. Of course we need metric measuring tools and an 18v cordless Dewalt drill. The cool thing is they just keep bringing them, everyday we get something new.
I've never been a big fan of metric blueprints. For an American, they can be a little hard to figure out at first. I have to admit though that once you figure them out, they make a hell of a lot more sense. They are just more logical in layout and pretty easy to follow once you get it. The control panels we are building are a thing of beauty. While they aren't very roomy and can be a little difficult, they are laid out to perfection in their use of space. Every plug, jack, and device is well thought out in placement and function. I have always enjoyed this type of work and hope that they can keep us busy through the holidays.
Auf Wiedersehen.
I've been working at Bank of America, keeping those servers humming. We are also putting in a fiber backbone for a new fire alarm system. Why they need that much bandwith for a fire alarm is beyond me, but they have plenty of money. It's not a bad job, but it does have it's pitfalls. Since the Villa Park is considered a "critical" facility, we are subject to freezes. Simply put, they don't want anyone working in a computer room while there is any possibility that a critical system could fail and there would be no redundancy. That means if they take a system down in say San Francisco, we can't work in Richmond. Apparently they have something going on because practically the whole months of October, November, and December are under a freeze. Which brings me to the title of this post.
For the past two weeks, I've been working at Hauni Maschinebau AG. They build high speed cigarette machines for the tobacco industry. They build them from scratch. This is the first time I have ever witnessed German engineering firsthand. The first thing we were told is to take all of our tools off of the job. They are not up to "specification". They then proceeded to provide each electrician with a rolling drawered tool chest filled with the finest tools I have ever had the pleasure to work with. Willy Hahn screwdrivers including hex, torx and precision phillips and slots. Blackhawk stubby ratcheting wrench sets. A variety of metric crimp tools. Swedish made diagonal cutters, and the finest pliers in the business, good old American made Kleins. Of course we need metric measuring tools and an 18v cordless Dewalt drill. The cool thing is they just keep bringing them, everyday we get something new.
I've never been a big fan of metric blueprints. For an American, they can be a little hard to figure out at first. I have to admit though that once you figure them out, they make a hell of a lot more sense. They are just more logical in layout and pretty easy to follow once you get it. The control panels we are building are a thing of beauty. While they aren't very roomy and can be a little difficult, they are laid out to perfection in their use of space. Every plug, jack, and device is well thought out in placement and function. I have always enjoyed this type of work and hope that they can keep us busy through the holidays.
Auf Wiedersehen.
posted by Benny at
18:31
2 Comments:
Hey,
If this is Hauni Richmond, Say hello to Wilfred Hoffman, haed of engineering. He's an old friend of mine, and Adam's roommate's father.
Ya,
Dis is Hauni Richmond. As far as I know, Folkes Electric doesn't do any work in Hamburg (yet). Will be on the lookout for Wilfred.
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