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Copyright © 1999 Adams Business Media, Inc. Would You Like A Reprint of
this Article? THE GLOBAL TRAVELS OF A MOTION ENGINEER (working title: An American Engineer in London -- and Asia) By Daniel Jones, President, American Institute of Motion Engineers T o say I travel a lot is an understatement. As I compose this article, I am returning to Great Britain to begin my 18th season of presenting technical papers and collecting information on the latest European products and motion technologies. It never ceases to amaze me how much can be learned about European Motion Control by talking to our European engineering counterparts. The technical papers in Great Britain and Germany are generally very high quality, and there is a balanced mix of motion control theory and practice at the Drives and Controls Conference in Telford, U.K. and the PCIM Europe Symposium in Nuremberg, Germany. Over the past 18 years, my position as an engineering and marketing consultant has allowed me the privilege of flying from California to Europe more than 30 times to visit European technical conferences and exhibitions and to travel in the opposite direction (about 20 times) to Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. While the distances are different between Los Angeles to London and Los Angeles to Tokyo, the actual flying time is almost identical * a few minutes beyond 10 1/2 hours for both flights. For me, flying is akin to putting on an overcoat while sitting in a small chair with high sides. My wide body and long legs look like a large pillow clamped between two chairs. You see, I wear the airline seat rather than just sit in it. Needless to say, I never truly rest in flight. This doesn't present a problem when traveling to the Far East, as flying west from California doesn't really tax the body's biological clock. However, flying west to east en route to Europe takes one through an energy-sapping abbreviated night. It has taken my European colleagues a number of visits to realize that my closed eyes do not indicate lack of interest in the various technical discussions and professional activities, but accurately display my body's difficulty in adjusting to the more than 8-hour time zone shift. Euro Specs Europe presents interesting challenges for American engineers who enjoy presenting and listening to technical papers. First and foremost, British Imperial units (ounces, inches, feet, etc.) will be poorly accepted if used in a technical presentation. The "British Imperial unit" measurement system name places the "blame" as to the historical roots of our "American" measurement system's units. We share more than just a common language. As an American engineer, you must be conversant in both metric (SI) and British Imperial units. After so many years of delivering these papers, I have almost become "plug-compatible" in both measurement systems. In Europe, it's newton-meters, radians-per-second, meters, centimeters, millimeters, micrometers and -- yes, even nano-meters (10-9 meters). Conversions of figures identifying electric motor torque-speed plots must be rescaled. Forget soft metric conversion, which results in very odd irrational scales. "Hard" metric scales with integral scale values now rule the day in papers and presentations in Europe and Asia. Asian Rules The Asian motor design engineers are well on their way toward using full metric measurements. Until 1990, most Japanese motor data sheets used an older form of metric units built around the kilogram-mass times meter (kg-m) and similar units for motor shaft torque. Today, the newton-meter is the undisputed measure of torque in Asia. As English is the primary business language in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia, a number of technical conferences in Japan, Korea, Taiwan and China use English as the universal spoken language of technology and science. While this is great for American engineers in Asia, actual face-to-face discussions with Asian engineers can be challenging as many are reticent to open up for fear of making embarrassing language mistakes. This dialogue barrier changes radically, however, once the Asian engineer has an opportunity to get to know you. As the global aspects of business and technology continue to develop, engineers across the United States, Europe, Asia and other parts of the world will begin to "speak the same language" * at least in terms of desire and ability to communicate and share scientific observations and innovations. [Editor1s Note: Dan's next article detailing information collected at the Drives and Controls Show in Telford, UK, will appear in the Motion Control Marketplace section of the June issue ofDesignfax. KC] Daniel Jones can be reached at djones9352@aol.com. 509 Marin St., Suite 221, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360. 805-496-2621. Copyright © 1999 Adams Business Media, Inc. Would You Like A Reprint of
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