Posted: 11/29/2009 3:26:02 PM EDT
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Who designs machines used in industry for making things like potato chips, twinkies, cardboard tubes, and the machines that I see on How Its Made and Dirty Jobs? Machines like that really blow my mind. Things I would have thought would have more human involvement are automated. I worked in a Good Humor & Breyers ice cream plant for a summer as a computer tech. The machines making the ice cream cones and whatnot were all custom. They had their own engineering department to keep those machines working and they had millions of dollars of parts in stock to repair those machines ASAP.
Anyway my hat is off to you mechanical engineers. I understand how it works once I see it but I could never design it. -Foxxz |
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I design the machines that shred, dice, cube and slice cheese, convey it, and package it.
It's a blast creating something new that we have never done before. Kind of like giving birth and seeing it grow to fruition. I guess you could say "I cut the cheese for a living." 
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i have a degree in mechanical engineering, but have spent most of the last 10 years working as a structural engineer. recently, i had to do some load testing/certification at a local frito lay plant. while there, i had one of the guys walk me through the plant for a quick behind the scenes tour. he told me raw potatoes come in one end of the plant, and 2 hours later, they leave the plant as packaged product. the machinery, coordination, sanitary regulations, and logistics were absolutely amazing. i understand economies of scale, but after watching what goes in to the process, i am still somewhat amazed that a bag of sour cream and onion chips doesn't cost $25.
paper plants are similar (though lots stinkier) in their process. lotsa work to make a roll of paper towel. re: the parts inventory on hand. one of the plant engineers at another local plant told me that it costs them $1500/hr to have a machine down. they are currently reworking one of their lines because they've lost of 100k in the last few months. |
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I agree, it's a remarkable skillset to have and anyone who can design machines for automated assembly line processes has my respect. Could I do it? Not as well as those who have the specialized knowledge and experience it takes to do it commercially. I could probably visualize workable concepts for every stage of the machine's intended process, but I'd have a hard time filling in all the blanks that would be required to turn the concept into a working production machine. It boils down to defining every task required as a set of elementally simple tasks and then building the gadget that performs it, and then integrating all the gadgets into an integrated machine that does all its tasks when and where they need to be performed. I can understand any machine I get to observe in operation with the covers off. But I'd starve to death if I was paid to design them and build them. I couldn't do it quickly...not without experience and plenty of it. The best mechanical puzzle I have yet figured out entirely on my own was how a helicopter works. I was able to deduce the cyclic and collective mechanism concepts (for helicopters) based only a basic understanding of how a helicopter flies, withouth having any prior knowledge of that mechanism. When I saw a detailed operational diagram of the mechanisms, I discovered that I had correctly deduced the mechanical concepts. That was pleasant to learn.  It's really nothing but a ring that can be raisedand lowered, and tilted forward and backward and side to side, and that ring operates hydraulic followers connected to actuators attached to the blade pivot assemblies. Raising and lowering the whole ring assembly is the collective control. All tilt adjustments are cyclic. CJ |
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Quoted:
something else to remember...most of those machines, while truly custom, are the evolution of multiple generations of refinement. very rarely do things work in practice exactly as the do on paper, even if engineers would have you believe otherwise. One of my favorite things to tell the fabricators/assemblers is, "Hey, I made it work on paper, I expect you to do the same in real life."
FWIW....this is what I do http://www.marchantschmidt.com |