Uni-Tübingen

CHT Factory visit 

by Pieter Heckroodt
 

This was a great factory visit. I say so, because I feel most of us never take into consideration the means of manufacturing or the scale of production of things and how woven in, it is in our everyday lives. It shapes so much stuff in society but is never commonly communicated in everyday life. 

This thus gave us a great opportunity to view and see how much work is taking place in the background of everyday commodities. How it is managed and how raw materials are combined and reshaped into a valuable end product. May it be by the use of methodological planning, practice of chemistry or the knowledge that is available to us about raw materials found in nature. 

I feel this kind of births a form of appreciation of where we have come as humankind. And shows us we are not limited to innovation and still other greater works are to come. The most interestingly thing that I saw in this visit was to what extend automation is implemented, be it in the research and development lab or in the warehouse. 

It was interesting to see how efficiently the operation systems and machines organized and stacked all the chemicals and final products in storage chambers and the storage warehouse. And more out of a chemistry view I appreciated, to see how big reaction chambers are in an industrial setting and compound synthesis take place at such a large scale. 

All in all this was a great opportunity to see German efficiency and organization at its best.