Hi Sandi,
I worked at CSIRO, we did work for all those car companies over the years…
I also took a group of apprentices through Mitsubishi some years ago…
Well then, I probably used some of your ideas then. I was a welder running the Rear Chassis section for the Holden at SA Process Engineering (owned by Perry Engineering) making the chassis for the sedan and short and long wheel base. I was a welding trainer there for a number of years. When they closed down I went to Mitsubishi and after a couple of years took over the small parts paint facility till I left and went into my own business.
We did a lot of the software for the new robot welding line they installed at Holden…
My forte was designing and building prototype welding torches and allied equipment…High current TIG welding torches, both hand held and machine mounted. Up to 2,000amps for the machine mounted one and 450amps for the hand held, both with 24 hour duty cycles!
Also a lot of gear for robotic arms where they were involved in welding, break away mounts, special purpose torches, etc, etc…
The last project I was doing was building a titanium reactor for making titanium from titanium oxide…very interesting stuff.
I might post some pics of my inventions when I get a chance…I’m only on my laptop at the moment as my desk top PC is at the doctors…it has all my pics on it.
Welcome Archer, I am pretty new too its a good forum, nice friendly people. Your job sounds like it was interesting. Lots of the cars you helped make would have headed out to the West too.
Seeing yours and Sandis chat made me, as a Sandgroper, realise Adelaide really did do a lot more than make good wines which as tourists to SA is what we really think of, first up. Good to be reminded there is much more achieved there.
Thanks Guys…
Sadly, we are no longer the manufacturing state of Australia…as with other states, greed has set in and companies have moved off shore in the search for even greater profits…
Will be pleased to see your pics too. Before I moved into the paint shop I was in charge in an area where we had 4 robot welders. They are great when they are going well, but boy did they give me some headaches.
That’s why I asked for the paint area when it was commissioned.
Re-programming welds on robots when they went awry was a pain in the a…e and trying to teach people who had never welded how to set them correctly had me tearing my hair out at times.
Here are just a few…not the best pics as they were taken with a Polaroid camera…
The XY table I built for using with laser welding where extreme accuracy is required…
Great pictures Ron and quite a few of them are very familiar.
You should post them in Technology on the forum. I’m sure others, especially the men would be interested in seeing them as long as you put a bit to say what each piece is.