Today we went to two different factories for tours. We got out of the city early to get to them, so no one else was outside for a while. It was odd to see after being around so many people for the last week. It was nice outside again, but we spent most of the time inside factories.

The first visit was to Hyundai’s car manufacturing plant, which was their main one in Korea. They manufacture three of the latest models there, and they output an amazing number of cars daily (upwards of 1000). We toured the pressing, welding, and finishing assembly lines, all of which are almost fully automated. Some parts of the welding assembly were completely automated, with huge robotic arms welding the car doors to the frame. It was impressive to see.

The second visit was to TK elevators, which has the second tallest elevator test tower in the world- 40 stories high! From up top, we could see that the factory was shaped like a traditional Korean turtle ship, which was very cool. Inside they produced many different types of elevators, including ones that went sideways as well as vertically, and a twin system that had two cabs in one shaft. The twin system was very complicated to work out, but TK elevators had made it work, and put a patent on it. They manufactured the electronics and the sheet metal at the factory and assembled it autonomously similarly to Hyundai. But the best part of the tour was when we did safety testing, to simulate the feeling of falling so TK elevator employees wouldn’t let the actual elevators fall. We each stood on a platform, wearing helmets, and were dropped 6 feet into a pit of foam through a trapdoor. The operator dropped us mid-sentence too, so we weren’t expecting it at all. It was a fun shock.

Until next time!