NA some XY entertainment

Let'sgoflying!

Let'sgoflying!

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Feb 23, 2005
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west Texas
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Dave Taylor
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KMRF
not that kind.

30 minutes of robotic crankshaft construction, mainly.
mesmerizing. Although I prefer to see craftsman at work, it is neat to see some awesome tools.

 
Watched most of it. Was almost surprised they didn't bother just making the robots move the parts between machines in the first half. (Later they did...) The operators seemed incredibly bored.
 
I was confused for a while, expecting a video of machining a very large crankshaft. But what is meant by biggest crankshaft manufacturing was the size of the operation, not the size of the crankshaft. Those things are babies. Here's a real crankshaft...

 
denverpilot said:
Watched most of it. Was almost surprised they didn't bother just making the robots move the parts between machines in the first half. (Later they did...) The operators seemed incredibly bored.
Click to expand...
When I visited the Corvette Manufacturing facility in Bowling Green, the assembly line people also seemed sort of bored. I say "sort of" because they spent most of their time talking and joking with their fellow union people and occasionally the line would bring them a chassis to turn a bolt or seat a part and then it would go on and they would return to their socializing.

There were a lot fewer people than there used to be. I took a similar tour at the GM manufacturing facility in Atlanta around 40 years ago, and it was hot and swarming with people. Today's facility was air conditioned, well lighted and highly automated. Even though there we many fewer people than in the old days, I suspect if it weren't for union contracts, they could get rid of over half the employees they have. It is not just outsourcing that is killing jobs. Automation is a prime ingredient too, and I dn't know what to do about that. Not everyone can be computer programmers. And besides, Artificial Intelligence will kill those jobs one day too. Even in the '80s, I worked at a code development shop that relied heavily on code generators that were developed in house.
 
NealRomeoGolf said:
I was confused for a while, expecting a video of machining a very large crankshaft. But what is meant by biggest crankshaft manufacturing was the size of the operation, not the size of the crankshaft. Those things are babies. Here's a real crankshaft...

Click to expand...

Me too. I'd find a Sulzer/Wartslia video, but I'm too lazy right now.
 
NealRomeoGolf said:
I was confused for a while, expecting a video of machining a very large crankshaft. But what is meant by biggest crankshaft manufacturing was the size of the operation, not the size of the crankshaft. Those things are babies. Here's a real crankshaft...
Click to expand...

That is big!
Did he really release it with a metal bar, prising up on the cylinder base??
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
Did he really release it with a metal bar, prising up on the cylinder base??
Click to expand...

Not quite sure what he was doing with that bar. The engine is upside down at that point and the bearing caps would have been removed. The crank should have just been resting on the connecting rods at that point.

You should see them move those engines around the factory. Big boys.
 
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