Woman in manufacturing / Austria

[scooterscot]

Recently I took a trip to visit a client in Vienna with which I've just begun a new relationship. They give me a tour around the entire factory floor. It was all very impressive, they make components for aircraft, with technology in use I've not seen before. There was a machine that measures tensile strength in 3D using water jets? Never seen such a thing like it before, very smart. Anyway back to the point, I noticed near half of the shop floor were female. I mentioned this to my guide, saying that I've never seen so many woman on the shop floor in what would normally be a male dominated industry. For them it was the normal to have this mix, and the environment I noticed was quite jovial, heck I wanted thrown down my pen and paper and get involved. I've never seen so many woman involved in engineering before than on that day. Heck on my undergraduate engineering course many moons ago they're were only 3 females, and two of them dropped out.

Just thought I'd share that recent experience, without bias or prejudice.

[doodab]

There was a machine that measures tensile strength in 3D using water jets? Never seen such a thing like it before, very smart.

Are you sure it wasn't a CNC machine? You can get water jet cutting machines, but most CNC cutting & grinding machines have jets spraying cooling and lubrication where it's needed.

[Gym beast]

Recently I took a trip to visit a client in Vienna with which I've just begun a new relationship. They give me a tour around the entire factory floor. It was all very impressive, they make components for aircraft, with technology in use I've not seen before. There was a machine that measures tensile strength in 3D using water jets? Never seen such a thing like it before, very smart. Anyway back to the point, I noticed near half of the shop floor were female. I mentioned this to my guide, saying that I've never seen so many woman on the shop floor in what would normally be a male dominated industry. For them it was the normal to have this mix, and the environment I noticed was quite jovial, heck I wanted thrown down my pen and paper and get involved. I've never seen so many woman involved in engineering before than on that day. Heck on my undergraduate engineering course many moons ago they're were only 3 females, and two of them dropped out.

Just thought I'd share that recent experience, without bias or prejudice.

Shop floor work of any kind is not particularly technical, and requires only a day or two of training. I can pretty much guarantee less than 10% of the women were the primary breadwinner in their households. I'd also imagine most of those women were not native Austrians, and over 45/50.

Whereas your graduate training course will impart technical skills to the level of a car mechanic in the first year alone, and strip out those whose minds are not suited to technical pursuits. Presumably you ended up pretty quickly with a class that was 99% male.

[sasguru]

Is there no limit to your credulity/gullibility/stupidity?
Boy from the Gorbals goes abroad and gets the wrong impression, because he's not terribly bright
Here are some facts:

1. female participitation in the workforce in the Teutonic world is far lower than than the rest of Europe.
Those were most probably Eastern European foreigners.

2. As the other cretin has observed, machine operating doesn't make one an engineer.
Neither does a crap poly degree for that matter.

HTH

[petergriffin]

Recently I took a trip to visit a client in Vienna with which I've just begun a new relationship.

Is this a romantic relationship or a "Kundenbeziehung"?

I guess you now think in German and translate your thoughts in English.

[scooterscot]

Are you sure it wasn't a CNC machine? You can get water jet cutting machines, but most CNC cutting & grinding machines have jets spraying cooling and lubrication where it's needed.

Very! This machine was 8m tall at least, used for measuring components of awkward shape.

[scooterscot]

Is this a romantic relationship or a "Kundenbeziehung"?

I guess you now think in German and translate your thoughts in English.

Their words not mine, NDA signed, PO's in the post, a new relationship.

[doodab]

Very! This machine was 8m tall at least, used for measuring components of awkward shape.

But tensile strength testing with water jets? How does that work?

Or was it checking for cracks or weld integrity? Or just a common or garden CMM?

[Spacecadet]

But tensile strength testing with water jets? How does that work?

Or was it checking for cracks or weld integrity? Or just a common or garden CMM?

Probably a giant version of the machine used to interocular pressure
Intraocular pressure - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[scooterscot]

But tensile strength testing with water jets? How does that work?

Or was it checking for cracks or weld integrity?

Cracks / weaknesses in a composite. The water jet was set to a sonic frequency hitting the material, another water jet @ 180 degrees receives the vibrations that pass through the material, with the difference in frequency building a picture. Very smart.