When we make one offs, basically yes. This may seem foreign, but...
Our articles are created in a "self organizing" fashion. Essentially a form of "nanotechnology" patented in 1976 by Bob Gore. One of the top 50 American patents ever. Worth a look if you're a material scientist type; I wasn't at all aware of it until I worked here, and it's very cool.
Economics and process stability dictate in large part whether something can be made commercial.
You guys have no idea how much off-topic discussions like this contribute to my outside-of-specialty learning. Of course, in this case PTFE is more within the realm of my competency. I'm just used to seeing Teflon associated with DuPont production in full scale.
Agreed. We're generally downstream of the actual production of ptfe, though the polymerization itself is very interesting (see also: pfoa). What I do now is mostly mechanical engineering rather than chemical, but having a strong polymer science background is of inestimable value here, since the intrinsic behavior of the chains dictate the processing to get the microstructure.
All worth it to enable such noble pursuits as champagne calls:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=l5aF23XpBwU
teflon polymerization, now we are talking my kinda stuff. microsctructures for days around here. we do far smaller though.
as he said, validation is proving the concept works, qualifying is proving it works on a like a production scale/process. my point is only that the bar to pass something when there is no crisis is far higher than the bar when there is a crisis. so as R&D folks, we just wait until the bar gets low, because we have R&D work to do most of the time. the bar is arbetrary, the bless of "qualified" is a myth. it either works or it doesn't, there is no "it works but we can't use it"
social conservatism: the mortal fear that someone, somewhere, might be having fun.
Originally Posted by cockerpunk
Ever so many citizens of this republic think they ought to believe that the Universe is a monarchy, and therefore they are always at odds with the republic. -Alan Watts
I work for the company building the Paragon
My favorite is when the sales group gets a hard on for a new product before it is even through prototyping let alone manufacturability/process validation. Production starts off behind from the get go, and the process group gets to be troubleshooters and bandaiders more than actually being able to implement process stability measures or projects.
your singing my song
my place is so mismanaged that I am leaving, off to bigger and much better things
literally every single new product line that has launched in the last two years has been announced years ahead of when it is ready, empty promises are made to customers, all because the "marketing" guys simply need something to do
and all the extra workload has been falling on me and the other machinists shoulders to program and produce production parts for all of our current product lines (roughly 25-30 parts), and all of the prototyping work, and all of the job shop work all of which involves individual programming, fixture design, setup, custom tooling occasionally, and deburring/prep work after the fact
every executive decision that has been made in the last 2 years has been a huge mistake that I have seen coming from a mile away
I was told to interrupt production and job shop work a few weeks ago, both of which we desperately need to do both to catch up as well as to keep revenue flowing, so that I could program and run two novelty tiles/plaques for the owner who was remodeling his kitchen and wanted a snazzy focal point, spent probably a day total on that which pushed back all of my other work all for some stupid pieces of metal that we will make zero dollars on, and this is after the guy has already laid off two employees
I don't normally post dirty laundry anywhere but since this is a relatively private/small community of like-minded individuals I figured I could vent a little, that and the fact that I am already leaving for another job has me much more carefree
to be frank I would be genuinely surprised if they were still in business six months after I leave, next friday is my last day and there is no replacement lined up who can take over my set up's, programming, design, machining, or inventory work, let alone the fact that I simply do not even have time to train someone to replace me because I have so much work they are trying to pile on me before I leave
Last edited by ElPanda; 08-25-2016 at 10:17 PM.
ABET accredited level II machinist - CNC Programmer - Mechanical Engineering Technologist
Rio Grande Inc.
Damn dude, that sounds like a crazy way to run a business. Congrats on the new gig!
yup, happens all the time.
social conservatism: the mortal fear that someone, somewhere, might be having fun.
seems like job shops around here have about a 2-5 year lifecycle. i think this is the reason, they find a couple of dedicated enough guys to make it work, and then tire them out/piss them off, they leave, and the the shop closes pretty quickly after that.
every machinist we have ever hired tells the same story, they became the key guy at a shop, do that for a year or two, ask for more money, the shop declines, they start job searching, they get offered a job here, and then the shop tries to bend over backwards begging them to stay. whereas if they just met the guy halfway when he asked for more, he'd have never found a new, higher paying, better hours job.
a lot of bad management.
Last edited by cockerpunk; 08-26-2016 at 09:52 AM.
social conservatism: the mortal fear that someone, somewhere, might be having fun.
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