I'm preoccupied with
other things today, but I wanted to quickly recap the fun that was
Manufacturing Day on Friday afternoon. I had never attended a
Manufacturing Day event before and I'm not directly involved in
manufacturing, but it sounded interesting and I wanted to check it
out.
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| A beautiful, windy autumn day in Cape Canaveral outside of the ADMC - Oct. 2, 2015 |
The event took place
at the Craig Technologies' Aerospace and Defense Manufacturing Center
in Cape Canaveral. When last I had been to that complex in 2010, it
was the United Space Alliance's NASA Shuttle Logistics Depot. USA
essentially closed down after the retirement of the space shuttle
program, and Craig Technologies took over the facility. I recognized
some of the same equipment, though much has been added and improved
upon in the last five years.
I would have loved
to take more photos of what I saw. However, photography was strictly
forbidden inside the facility. They even half-jokingly threatened to
confiscate my camera when I asked if I could take a photo of a
display booth of manufactured parts that was set up for visitors. I
only dared to take photos outside the building, in the lobby, and in
the exhibit area.
Our tour guide was
the program manager for manufacturing (or a similar impressive title)
and was extremely knowledgeable and informative throughout the
facilities tour. The tour began in the avionics area where a huge
room is set up for cable manufacturing. I wanted to go into the foam
wall room where they conduct antenna testing, but our tour group was
too big. We were shown a temperature-controlled vibration testing
machine quite a bit bigger than the ones I've seen at universities.
Although we didn't see the area, we were told about a project testing
lighting cycling on the International Space Station.
We were taken to a
different area where tubes are created, bent, and assembled. I didn't
understand what they meant by “tube bending” until the
demonstration. Very similar to how I bend thin strands of metal
around circular objects when making or fixing jewelry, an automated
machine bends metal pipes around a curved structure quickly and
efficiently. In that same area, we were shown a large autoclave for
tube creation, a pressure chamber for outgassing, and a laser etching
the words “Craig Technologies” into a metal bottle cap opener.
We were then shown a
100,00 class clean room. I smiled when I peered inside the clean room
and saw a vacuum chamber bell jar nearly identical to the one I
worked with daily for years in graduate school. Only this bell jar
had an impressive induction brazing system inside of it.
We were then shown
the busiest area: basic manufacturing. I've been trained to use basic
machine shop tools: mills, lathes, and drills. I wouldn't have the
slightest idea how to use most of the equipment they have: 3, 5, and
9 axis milling machines; coordinate measuring machines; 3D printing
machines; water jets, and an electrical discharge machine which I
hadn't heard of before. Our tour guide explained that most of the
work is manufacturing and reverse manufacturing, not much actual
design work here.
The tour ended with
snacks, beverages, and an exhibit hall full of manufacturing and
technology related organizations. I saw a demonstration of a program
identical to the Logo Turtle Graphics that I learned in elementary
school, only with Disney's Frozen characters as the cursor courtesy of Code.org. (I personally don't believe that we should "feminize" gender-neutral things by changing their appearance to try to appeal to girls, and instead we should let girls know that gender-neutral things are made for them, but that's just me.) I got to
say hello to some colleagues and learn about new things in the area.
The mayor gave a
speech, as did Mark and Carol, the President and Founder/CEO,
respectively. I've worked with them during Florida Space Day these
past few years and have been meaning to learn more about Craig
Technologies. Thank you to Craig Technologies and everyone involved
for being such great hosts and putting on a great program!
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| Sneaking a picture with the astronaut-signed space shuttle mock-up in the lobby - Oct. 2, 2015 |
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