Do you remember the first time you experienced a magician as a child? Someone who puts a coin in one ear and takes it out the other. It was always quite impressive. Today I sometimes feel that way when I see what extremely complex workpieces our customers process with our grinding machines. And to be honest: when our son introduces me to the latest apps on his iPhone. There's actually an app that you can use to blow out birthday candles.

 A Belgian magician in Trossingen

But back to magic. A few days ago we had a real magician in Trossingen. The man's name is Joseph Messina, he's Belgian, has been a magician for almost 20 years and is also chairman of the Magic Club Belge. Of course we asked Joseph for a little demonstration, which he was happy to do.

But Joseph Messina is not only a magician with heart and soul, but also an enthusiastic technician and as such works for our customer Techspace Aero as Production Manager. Techspace Aero is a leading aerospace supplier based in Belgium. At Techspace Aero, components made of highly demanding materials are machined on high-precision high-tech grinding centers. However, this has less to do with magic than with a great deal of engineering knowledge and the spirit of innovation that prevails here.

Engineers for progress
I read in the Süddeutsche (SZ, 12.04.2010) in mid-April that true change and technical progress are not brought about by the Internet and genetic engineering, but by "solid engineers and proven technologies". Andrian Kreye puts forward the interesting thesis that our society is still technologically in the first half of the 20th century and writes: "None of the digital and biological breakthroughs have had a social impact as yet, for example, the light bulb, the automobile, the refrigerator or jet. Kreye believes, and this is balm for our souls, for the future and for the creative power of engineers.

"Where's our Daniel Düsentrieb?" 

is the headline of the article. Well, I say there are inventive engineers in every industry. But you have to offer these people the necessary freedom within an open corporate culture. Then, for example, technological tidbits like the so-called XING dressing come out. According to our head of development Charlie Braun, this allows "every convex profile to be re-profiled within a tolerance range of 3 to 4 µm". If you are interested in this topic, I would recommend a well-founded technical article from the production department. That's it for today. Bye and have fun with "It's a kind of magic".

Dirk Wember