just got back from a 3 day trip around wisconsin. i work in the field at least once a month on average, most of the time out of state or at least not local
enough in illinois that it requires an overnight stay (if not more then one).
as most of you already might know, i install conveyor belting on machinery. some of the time we are replacing failed belts and under hire by the end customer who owns the machine, and i am working in their plant. i work in many different industries, since many industries use conveyors. the midwest is filled with food processing: candy, bakery and more
but alot of the time, i am working with foreign OEMs (original equipment manufacturers). basically a large company in the US will purchase new equipment. alot of this precision machinery comes from overseas. it will be shipped over, and the OEM will send some of their men along with it to basically put it together and get it up and running. these guys are often in the states for months working out the bugs until everything is ready to go, then they finally get to go back home. in these cases, we are being paid by the OEM, not the company who owns the plant where we are working.
this week as i said i was gone for 3 days and it was a rare occassion becuase i did two different jobs in two cities in that time. i have only had things schedule like this once before. i was with one of my coworkers as the jobs were intense, and the second one required some large and heavy equipment that no one could handle by themselves.
i dont like to talk about the exact places i go or the end customers, but i have no problem talking about the OEMs i work with, as they sell their machinery around the world. often i have worked with these guys then come across more of their stuff elsewhere in other plants.
below is a list of some of the wild foreigners ive worked with.
http://www.rademaker.nl/ - netherlands
this was the 2nd job i did this week. rademaker makes baking equipment. i have seen their equipment in use in a pretty large commercial bakery in chicago that makes danish and donuts. this week i got to work with them in a very large plant in wisconsin on a new machine called a 'proofer box'. it has ten belts, 6' wide each, 180' each. they are stacked one on top of the other up to about 12' high. the press we use to vulcanize them is 500 lbs and comes apart into 4 pieces. we had to disassemble and reassemble it by hand each time. we worked 30 horus between the 2 of us in 2 days. the workers were great guys, often it seems the dutch are a bit more happy go lucky then germans who can be quite intense. these guys had awesome pins on their uniforms that said 'it can be done!' in dutch. that is a great slogan to use on the job site, when you are sizing up a very difficult or nearly impossible task (like working with a 500 lb piece of gear 12' in the air), that slogan is very real
http://www.engelglobal.com -- austria
these guys were truly intense. this job was literally death defying. engel installed some machines (4 or 5, i dont remember) in southern indiana in a brick plant. the plant was a new construction, when i was there there was no real water or electricity besides very temporary rigs. the building had a ceiling, but it didnt have all its walls. the conveyors were about 12'-13' wide and very heavy PVC material. that press was near 1000 lbs probably. we had 2 guys and they had 3 or 4 more to help. we used a boom front loader to move around the pieces of the press. the conveyor was also about 6' off the ground, with nothing around it in case you fell off. the head guy from engel was named roland, and i remember at one point we were sizing up how the hell to get 1000 lbs of gear up onto this machine. we realized we would not really be able to use the boom because there was no room. he said to me in heavily accented english 'there is only one thing we can do -- manpower'. i use that expression constantly to this day. he was really an inspiration. i remember one time he was holding a piece of the press with all of us. he was holding it above his head with arms fully extended and his hard hat got knocked off by an I-beam. he hit his head on the corner of the I-beam and it didnt bleed right away but it looked so fucking painful. he didnt even make a peep. not that he could, what he was holding above his head would possibly crack his skull if he let go.
http://www.troester.de/ -- germany
this was a total bullshit job. i drove about 14 horus round trip in 2 days to work for under 1 hour
. this was a tire plant in southern illinois. new
installation, they accidentally put a rip about 3" on one edge of the belt. all i had to do was repair it which was easy and fast. ate a shitload of free
meals and got wasted in my hotel room to work 1 hour in 2 days. awesome. i remember the head guy from troester had the wildest uniform ever, like long shorts
that bordered on women's capri pants, they were also very loud blue. awesome!
http://www.sollich.com -- germany
this was a chocolate application in minnesota. the head guy was named alex and he was taller then me which puts him at 6'5" easy. he also had to have weiged about 350. he wasnt thin, but he didnt have a huge gut or anything, he was just a monster, built like a brick shithouse. he also had a super deep voice like andre teh giant. i have come across some of their machinery in other confectionary plants (non-chocolate candy) as well.
http://www.nedcondls.com/ -- netherlands
this was an awesome fucking job. unforunately, DLS hired another contractor to oversee the job. the guy was german, but he was from texas, and he didnt
work for DLS. this machine was about 45' at its highest. there were over 300 belts in it, you can see it on their website, it seems like they basically
only make this one product. the belts are called drive belts, they dont even contact the product. they just spin little rollers which then move the product. i
was with 3 other guys, we worked in teams of 2, with each team on its own scissor lift. working at that top level was a bit scary at first but i got quickly
used to it. no worries though, i was fully harnessed and attached with a lanyard to the lift.the belts were very long but only about 1" wide so we used
small handheld equipment.
http://www.bielomatik.com/ - germany
this was my 1st job this week. i had worked in this plant with these guys back in december in another phase of the construction. they deal in a few industries but this was paper -- a mill that takes full logs into rolls of paper. the machines are called 'sheeters', they handle huge wide pieces of paper about 15' wide but instead of a 15' wide belt, there are lots of very narrow belts that work togehter. since they are small, the equipment is small but you also have to lay on your stomach for hours, or work in a pit on a ladder under teh machine, or sit inside of it so only your arms and head are sticking out. i was alone here in december but i had a coworker this week so it was much easier. my contacts were named oli and jan (prounced 'yaan').
i am lucky to get to work in such wild places with wild people. i have worked in many very dangerous enviorments, many of which didnt involve OEMs so i didnt mention them here, but also include glass (windshield making) and other wild paper mills. i put a belt on a 'pulper' in duluth MN a few months ago. this belt was 10' wide and pushed scrap paper into a pit about 30' deep that has rushing water and a spinning blade to pulp the paper for recycling. you dont want to fall in there! all day i could hear the rushing water, it was scary yet mesmerizing. that press was about 750 lbs. good times!
as most of you already might know, i install conveyor belting on machinery. some of the time we are replacing failed belts and under hire by the end customer who owns the machine, and i am working in their plant. i work in many different industries, since many industries use conveyors. the midwest is filled with food processing: candy, bakery and more
but alot of the time, i am working with foreign OEMs (original equipment manufacturers). basically a large company in the US will purchase new equipment. alot of this precision machinery comes from overseas. it will be shipped over, and the OEM will send some of their men along with it to basically put it together and get it up and running. these guys are often in the states for months working out the bugs until everything is ready to go, then they finally get to go back home. in these cases, we are being paid by the OEM, not the company who owns the plant where we are working.
this week as i said i was gone for 3 days and it was a rare occassion becuase i did two different jobs in two cities in that time. i have only had things schedule like this once before. i was with one of my coworkers as the jobs were intense, and the second one required some large and heavy equipment that no one could handle by themselves.
i dont like to talk about the exact places i go or the end customers, but i have no problem talking about the OEMs i work with, as they sell their machinery around the world. often i have worked with these guys then come across more of their stuff elsewhere in other plants.
below is a list of some of the wild foreigners ive worked with.
http://www.rademaker.nl/ - netherlands
this was the 2nd job i did this week. rademaker makes baking equipment. i have seen their equipment in use in a pretty large commercial bakery in chicago that makes danish and donuts. this week i got to work with them in a very large plant in wisconsin on a new machine called a 'proofer box'. it has ten belts, 6' wide each, 180' each. they are stacked one on top of the other up to about 12' high. the press we use to vulcanize them is 500 lbs and comes apart into 4 pieces. we had to disassemble and reassemble it by hand each time. we worked 30 horus between the 2 of us in 2 days. the workers were great guys, often it seems the dutch are a bit more happy go lucky then germans who can be quite intense. these guys had awesome pins on their uniforms that said 'it can be done!' in dutch. that is a great slogan to use on the job site, when you are sizing up a very difficult or nearly impossible task (like working with a 500 lb piece of gear 12' in the air), that slogan is very real
http://www.engelglobal.com -- austria
these guys were truly intense. this job was literally death defying. engel installed some machines (4 or 5, i dont remember) in southern indiana in a brick plant. the plant was a new construction, when i was there there was no real water or electricity besides very temporary rigs. the building had a ceiling, but it didnt have all its walls. the conveyors were about 12'-13' wide and very heavy PVC material. that press was near 1000 lbs probably. we had 2 guys and they had 3 or 4 more to help. we used a boom front loader to move around the pieces of the press. the conveyor was also about 6' off the ground, with nothing around it in case you fell off. the head guy from engel was named roland, and i remember at one point we were sizing up how the hell to get 1000 lbs of gear up onto this machine. we realized we would not really be able to use the boom because there was no room. he said to me in heavily accented english 'there is only one thing we can do -- manpower'. i use that expression constantly to this day. he was really an inspiration. i remember one time he was holding a piece of the press with all of us. he was holding it above his head with arms fully extended and his hard hat got knocked off by an I-beam. he hit his head on the corner of the I-beam and it didnt bleed right away but it looked so fucking painful. he didnt even make a peep. not that he could, what he was holding above his head would possibly crack his skull if he let go.
http://www.troester.de/ -- germany
this was a total bullshit job. i drove about 14 horus round trip in 2 days to work for under 1 hour
. this was a tire plant in southern illinois. new
installation, they accidentally put a rip about 3" on one edge of the belt. all i had to do was repair it which was easy and fast. ate a shitload of free
meals and got wasted in my hotel room to work 1 hour in 2 days. awesome. i remember the head guy from troester had the wildest uniform ever, like long shorts
that bordered on women's capri pants, they were also very loud blue. awesome!
http://www.sollich.com -- germany
this was a chocolate application in minnesota. the head guy was named alex and he was taller then me which puts him at 6'5" easy. he also had to have weiged about 350. he wasnt thin, but he didnt have a huge gut or anything, he was just a monster, built like a brick shithouse. he also had a super deep voice like andre teh giant. i have come across some of their machinery in other confectionary plants (non-chocolate candy) as well.
http://www.nedcondls.com/ -- netherlands
this was an awesome fucking job. unforunately, DLS hired another contractor to oversee the job. the guy was german, but he was from texas
, and he didnt
work for DLS. this machine was about 45' at its highest. there were over 300 belts in it, you can see it on their website, it seems like they basically
only make this one product. the belts are called drive belts, they dont even contact the product. they just spin little rollers which then move the product. i
was with 3 other guys, we worked in teams of 2, with each team on its own scissor lift. working at that top level was a bit scary at first but i got quickly
used to it. no worries though, i was fully harnessed and attached with a lanyard to the lift.the belts were very long but only about 1" wide so we used
small handheld equipment.
http://www.bielomatik.com/ - germany
this was my 1st job this week. i had worked in this plant with these guys back in december in another phase of the construction. they deal in a few industries but this was paper -- a mill that takes full logs into rolls of paper. the machines are called 'sheeters', they handle huge wide pieces of paper about 15' wide but instead of a 15' wide belt, there are lots of very narrow belts that work togehter. since they are small, the equipment is small but you also have to lay on your stomach for hours, or work in a pit on a ladder under teh machine, or sit inside of it so only your arms and head are sticking out. i was alone here in december but i had a coworker this week so it was much easier. my contacts were named oli and jan (prounced 'yaan').
i am lucky to get to work in such wild places with wild people. i have worked in many very dangerous enviorments, many of which didnt involve OEMs so i didnt mention them here, but also include glass (windshield making) and other wild paper mills. i put a belt on a 'pulper' in duluth MN a few months ago. this belt was 10' wide and pushed scrap paper into a pit about 30' deep that has rushing water and a spinning blade to pulp the paper for recycling. you dont want to fall in there! all day i could hear the rushing water, it was scary yet mesmerizing. that press was about 750 lbs. good times!
