After a good night of sleep (for me at least) we woke up with the air conditioning still blazing. This is necessary because the temperature in here rarely drops below 30 degrees at night in summer and it is always very humid. The original plan of going in full suit was changed to what we call ‘business casual’ because otherwise most of us wouldn’t survive the blazing heat during this day full of company visits.
After getting a typical Korean noodle breakfast at the local 24h convenience store, we headed off in a bus to the first company called Doosan. The bus was very luxurious and was equipped with very good air conditioning (as all means of large transport in Korea seem to be). Next to that, we noticed many speakers in the bus and four television screens. Next to that, the decorations had all kinds of wooden ornaments and engraved plastic decorations. We concluded due to the presence of a disco light and multiple microphones that it had to be some kind of karaoke/party bus which is repurposed as a normal bus during daytime.
Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction is, as the full name suggests, specialized in everything that is big. And I really mean BIG, you will read why later on.
After arriving at the Doosan company terrain, we were greeted by a very friendly Korean lady who guided us in. After watching a ten-minute introduction movie about the company, we were guided to an exhibition which demonstrates and shows all the different sections the company is active in. Some examples of these are: Power plants (both thermal and nuclear), water purification and desalination, windmills, ship engines and the construction of buildings. All these activities make it one of the largest companies of Korea and a huge player in international markets.
Next, after receiving a helmet and an ear speaker so we could hear our guide everywhere, we were headed to some of the workshops Doosan has on the local site. First, we headed to the Casting & Forging building. It is a massive building containing some enormous pieces of machinery. Amongst them stood the largest mechanical press in the world. This piece of equipment is capable of delivering 17.000 metric tons of pressure! We were extremely lucky to see this machine in live action because it was not operational in the weeks prior. It was pressing and forming a 410-ton rod of solid metal into what would become a motor shaft of a ship engine. Every time the metal rod was moved or pressed, a miniature earthquake could be felt in the surrounding area. The press molded the 2100 °C rod like it was clay. To move the rod around, an equally impressive machine with a large mechanical claw was used and its sole purpose was to hold the rod, move it forward and backward, and rotate it. This machine is able to hold pieces of metal up to 650 tons in weight! Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures inside of the workshops, but some footage can be found on YouTube if the words ‘Doosan 17.000 ton press’ are searched for. It really is the most badass piece of machinery I have ever seen operating in real life.
The next building to visit was the Gas Turbine Workshop. This building has a footprint equal to nine football fields and is the place for building gas turbines for both nuclear and thermal power plants. The section we visited contained some very nearly finished turbines and it gave a very good impression of enormous size and the complexity of these things. The process of making these turbines is largely automated and it takes one year and five months to complete one of them. When completed, the 1400 Megawatt turbines can be used for about 25 years in a power plant.
The third and last place to visit was the Nuclear Production Facility. In here, steam turbine chambers and nuclear reactor vessels are made for the use in nuclear power plants. Several of these products were situated in here and being prepared for welding by using large blowtorches to preheat the metal parts. Producing one of these takes at least three years due to the strict quality control and specifications. When finished, each reactor can deliver 1400 megawatts of power, with an upgrade to 1500 megawatts planned. Note: this place only creates the reactors, it does not use or handle uranium at all! 😉
After this we moved on to the next visit, picking up some lunch halfway. This time we were invited to visit the Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI). We first got some drinks, ate our rather delicious Korean lunch and watched an introduction video about the institute. KERI is a government-funded research institute specializing in R&D in the field of electrotechnology. It has three research centers located in Korea and it has achieved several technological breakthroughs in the past.
We were also invited to look at some of KERI’s facilities. First, we went to the High Power Laboratory. This is a testing and certification center for high power electronics used in for example power distribution networks, like transformers and circuit breakers. In total, nine separate testing chambers were located here with different voltage ratings accompanied by three large generators powering everything. These are able to charge up large capacitor banks up to 800 kV which are located in separate buildings and can store an energy of 75 Megajoules per building.
Next, we went to the Motor Research Center, where research is done on high efficiency motors. This test facility is suited to test both motors for automotive use and high speed motors. Currently, their main research goal is to increase the efficiency of induction motors by 30%. If this is achieved, Korea would be able to shut down about 6 power plant units if all its motors were upgraded.
Finally, we visited the Superconductivity Research Center. In here we had some demos about how superconductivity works and we were explained what the (future) applications of superconductors are in industry. Also, we were told that KERI is one of only three suppliers of superconducting wire in the world and the machine for producing this was shown and explained. Apparently, in superconducting wire, the superconducting part is only one micrometer thick, while all the support layers around it are a total of 150 micrometers thick.
Having finished this last demo, we went on by bus to the Changwon National University where Lisa gave a presentation to professor J. Song, who is the dean of the Graduate School of Engineering and the College of Mechatronics Engineering, a number of his students and us about who we are and what the goal of SPARK is. After which, dr. Helm Jansen gave a presentation about a Magnetically Suspended Planar Motor with Integrated Contactless Energy Transfer. It was a very interesting presentation, also judging from the large amount of questions afterwards, and we learned a lot from it. The presentation session was concluded with some promotional videos of both universities to learn about their goals and visions and the possibilities of doing parts of your study abroad.
The visit to the Changwon National University was concluded with a combined dinner of everyone who attended the presentations in a typical Korean-style restaurant. Here we had the opportunity to chat with the local students and learn about their habits and how to properly eat food in the Korean way. Before the dinner started, professor J. Song went by every table to do a toast with us. I think the food was great, but some of us had some difficulty with the large amount of fish and spices. Most of us drank either beer (which isn’t really great and is often created from rice) or soju (which is a very popular local spirit which is also made from rice). But not all Koreans like it and they taught us that mixing beer and soju is a great combination. Overall, it was a great evening and we had loads of fun.
The day was concluded with a ride on the bus back. Not just a ride, however. I talked about the bus having a special interior in the opening section of this blog, right? Yeah, so someone asked the bus driver if he could turn on the party mode of the bus and this resulted in a hilarious ride back with loads of Korean pop style music, disco party lights and dancing people. Best bus ride ever!
Afterwards, we went to a local bar and ordered beer for some and soju for others, but eventually went on with mixing a bottle of soju in every pitcher beer we ordered, which proved to be a very efficient way of getting a headache the next day.
– Sebastiaan Goossens