Reflective Journal 7

This week was an exciting week for us as we had our first field trip as MJIIT students and we went to visit the malaysian factory of one the best camera maker in the world, Canon Inc. which was situated in Shah Alam. Canon Opto Malaysia Sdn. Bhd. as the factory was named, has been around since 1988 and currently tasked to the manufacturing EF lenses, Optical Lenses (penta prisms) as well as compact cameras. The trip from KSJ was suppose to take around 40 minutes but our bus drivers got lost on the way and finally after an hour we manage to reach our destination with the help of our friend Amir Hafizuddin to guide the driver as he was more familiar with the area.

Upon reaching the the factory, we were asked to take a group photo with some of the staff in front of the main building then we ushered into the meeting hall. There they gave us an introduction on the factory itself, when it started operation, what they produce here and, last but not least, safety instructions and after that we started our tour of the factory.

 First off, they went to bring us to see their water treatment plant. This is where they treat the water before it is used to do the polishing of the lenses as they require deionized water to do so. They recycle this water here as well to reduce cost as they require a huge amount of water for the polishing process. Besides that, the plant is also used to treat the waste water before it is let off into the drains.So why go all the way to Canon to see a water treatment plant? Well it seems that this is a policy of the company and that any group that comes to visit this factory is brought to visit the plant to show us that the company doesn't neglect environmental issues and tries to reduce their impact towards the environment.

Next we went on to the solid waste management plant. The smell of rubbish was in the air as this was where the solid waste like left over food was processed before it is dispose.

 They use the above machine to recycle food waste into fertiliser

This machine is a carbonizer. What it does is incinerating the waste without the presence of oxygen so that no toxic gases are produced during the incinerating process.

After that they brought us to visit the production line in the factory. Before we are allowed to enter, they gave us shoe covers to make sure that there is no excessive dust entering the production line. We were also told we could not take any pictures while we were in the line. Then they split us into three groups each with its own guide to bring us around and our guide was one of the production manager. He told us the line was split into 2 half. One half produces the compact cameras and the other half produce the lenses. One thing I've noticed in the production line was that the operators were mostly if not all women. We got to see how they assemble most of the components together and how some of the testing were done on the product and even how the packaging was done.

After visiting the line we were brought to the cafeteria to have our lunch and after that we return to the meeting hall where the exchange of gifts was done and then we went back. This trip is an eye opener as it allowed us to see the working conditions were like in a production plant.

Reflective Journal 6

Last week, an outside speaker from Titan Thermal Solution Sdn Bhd (TTS) was invited to give us a talk. As the name implies, this company specializes in thermal imaging technology. The speaker was none other than the executive director of TTS, Mr. Vivek Panicker. He started of his talk by explaining to us how important electronics systems are in our daily life and that almost every aspect of our modern lives needs us to interact with electronic systems in one form or another. He also stated that electronic systems are playing a major role in the development and advancement of technology. Electronics was in the beginning a part of electrical engineering and it was until the invention of the radio that the field of electronics diverges from the electrical field. The development in the field of electronics over the years has lead to components being much smaller than they were before which allows us to design circuits with can handle more operation and in a smaller size than before.

Mr. Vivek then explain that electronics plays a very important role in the industry or even in today's ICT era and is the catalyst that enhances production and productivity in industries as they heavily rely on them. Electronics are mainly divided into 5 major fields and they are consumer electronics, industrial electronics, defence electronics, communication electronics and information processing system and they are divided again into many other subunits such as medical electronics and imaging.

Next Mr. Vivek then gave us an overview on the imaging industry. There are a number of kinds of imaging and namely they are chemical imaging, digital imaging, geophysical imaging, medical imaging, molecular imaging, optical imaging, radar imaging and thermography (thermal imaging). He told us that thermal imaging was actually part of defence electronics which makes use of infra-red waves to produce an image. This kind of imaging is commonly known as "dirty" imaging systems as they require a lot of pre and post processing of the data before an actual image could be form.

The above is an example of a basic imaging system. A lens is use to capture the waves and then a sensor will translate this analog data into digital form which is then processed and enhanced by the ICs before it is displayed on a viewer. Thermal imaging is used widely in industries especially in maintenance, R&D as well as medical research.

Lastly, Mr. Vivek told us that there is no limit in electronics and what ever we want to achieve through electronics is possible and is only limited by our imagination.