5 Notes on Visiting an Industrial Electric Motor Factory

Read the full post at - 5 Notes on Visiting an Industrial Electric Motor Factory Every year, the ABB Baldor-Reliance plant in Athens, Georgia opens its doors to employees and their families. My father-in-law works there, so this past year I went. He and his floor supervisor walked us down the assembly line, station by station, explaining what happens at each one. I come from a career of code and stories. So it was genuinely strange to stand in front of a giant plate of steel and rolls of raw copper – stuff dug out of the ground on the other side of the world – and watch it become a motor that turns things and cooks things and moves things. Physical products are amazing in a way that I think digital products used to be. A Place That Makes a Thing The motors range from about the size of a riding lawnmower up to the size of a small chair. At the core, they’re copper wiring wound around an axis, sealed inside a steel casing. That’s it. That’s the product. But following one down the line…