Tradeshows
I worked in Museums for nearly 20 years, 3 of 'em. I've been working on tradeshows for almost 10. And in conversation today, it was brought to my attention that my employers suck, but the job's ideal. So true.
We're currently in the 2-week load-in for a week-long show devoted to very large machinery. For your benefit, even a big show loads in about 5 to 7 days, and a long show is 4 days. Got it?
Man, this show is cool. I wish I had pictures, but I've never thought Kodak made anything more understandable to the audience than a good explanation. A picture is worth a 1000 words, but the words make more sense.
There are cranes to move some of this stuff that are unimaginably strong. They are clearly designed to pick up heavy things under relatively low ceilings. They'd look right at home on the hangar-deck of an aircraft carrier. The exhibitors bring in machines that are 30 feet tall, and will shave a ton of aluminum into a mountain of chips in an 8-hour shift.
Ever seen what a 1-ton block of aluminum looks like? It's not as big as you think... But taking off 1/10000th of an inch at a pass, you've gotta move to make that deadline. There are booths with multiple examples of multiple-million dollar automated thingies that can make widgets without human intervention for years. Some of these beasts run, once installed, 24x7. In fact, they're all mostly intended for that duty-cycle.
The age-old image of the drill, mill or lathe with the various sprayers or squirters spewing oil or coolant onto the work as the removal process goes along are passe. Long passe, to ask the salesmen. Nowadays, the cool folks get rid of all that heat in the chips. Concentrate on that: the tool flies so fast and whacks off so much material that the waste-heat is carried away in the waste-material.
And you may've heard of the on-line service that you upload the CAD file for your part, and FedEx brings it tomorrow. Takes an extra day (I think) if you want it in metal. Well, $24,900 and you've got that at home: A “solid” printer, produces a 3-D part in couple of hours.
Just incredible, I think I want to get back into older cars with one of those: I'll just build the godammned part instead of waiting for it to arrive from Sweden. A week after the last of these monsters is loaded onto it's low-boy (count the wheels, buckaroo, that thing's heavy.) we'll have a room full of people trying to sell the tools, practices, and incentives to motivate employees to frenzies of productivity. And then radiologists, then hardware, then dentists, and drug companies, and telecom-geeks, and... It's like a museum that changes every couple of weeks. I strongly suggest you visit your local exhibit-hall frequently. You'll find a way in, do it: there's always something to learn from any of these things.