Paddy
Veteran Member
Just back from a two week biz trip in India and China. I'm an engineer for an Austrian high voltage porcelain insulator company. My task was to evaluate plants wanting to supply to us.
China is an intresting place full of contrast. The coastal area cities are very cosmopoliton. Much manufacturing is deep in country. I visited porcelain factories, injection molding factories and a foundry. Some were brand new factories using state of the art CNC machines and others were old fashion high labor methods. The foundry was a very small operation. There was a sheet metal roof building covering a floor of mold sand. The entire floor had been made into to a grid of molds for various parts. As the hot iron was poured in to two man portable dispencing devices, they quickly poured in to the holes. There was an army of guys with out any protection like safeglases. leather chaps or even gloves. Just long poles. As they would pour, hot sparks and plumes of smoke would fill the air. As the view cleared, they had moved on to "refill". Quite a trip.
I did get to spend a day a the Terra Cota Warriors of Xi'an. You may recall this is the place where in'74 they found burried thousands of life sized solders. Really quite inpressive. I'd guess, a 10 ac pit filled with solders all in formation.
China is on the edge of a major transformation. From old world manfacturing methods to state of the art automated manufacturing all designed to European and American technoligy
China is an intresting place full of contrast. The coastal area cities are very cosmopoliton. Much manufacturing is deep in country. I visited porcelain factories, injection molding factories and a foundry. Some were brand new factories using state of the art CNC machines and others were old fashion high labor methods. The foundry was a very small operation. There was a sheet metal roof building covering a floor of mold sand. The entire floor had been made into to a grid of molds for various parts. As the hot iron was poured in to two man portable dispencing devices, they quickly poured in to the holes. There was an army of guys with out any protection like safeglases. leather chaps or even gloves. Just long poles. As they would pour, hot sparks and plumes of smoke would fill the air. As the view cleared, they had moved on to "refill". Quite a trip.
I did get to spend a day a the Terra Cota Warriors of Xi'an. You may recall this is the place where in'74 they found burried thousands of life sized solders. Really quite inpressive. I'd guess, a 10 ac pit filled with solders all in formation.
China is on the edge of a major transformation. From old world manfacturing methods to state of the art automated manufacturing all designed to European and American technoligy
