Using computerized grids, workers assemble thousands of tiles — in their apartments
The pandemic has shuttered factories nationwide, at a cost of many jobs. But the people who make custom mosaic artworks for the Boston company Artaic are still hard at work: They’ve taken the factory home with them.
Ordinarily, Artaic assembles mosaics with robots. Its complex and colorful designs have been featured in Architectural Digest magazine and have earned it contracts with the hotel chains Hyatt and Marriott, as well as with airport operators in Boston and Philadelphia.
When founder Ted Acworth realized the coronavirus outbreak would sharply restrict production at his factory, he and his workers assembled a portable computer-aided system that lets them do their jobs by hand, at home. Now, instead of them collecting unemployment insurance, 13 Artaic manufacturing workers are as busy as ever, even as they shelter at home.
Advertisement
“It was that or nothing,” said Acworth, a former post-doctoral scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who holds a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Stanford University. “They all wanted to work, and we had the work to give them.”
Artists have been making mosaics for at least 5,000 years. They’re works of art made by assembling bits of glass, stone, or ceramic tiles into large and colorful images, often to decorate floors, walls, and ceilings. But making a mosaic is slow, tedious, and costly.
Artaic seeks to automate the most tedious and expensive part of the job, using software to plan the placement of every tile in a mosaic. This digital plan is fed to a robot that builds a mosaic in square sections, which are then shipped to the construction site and assembled into a complete image.
In March, when Acworth learned about the need for social distancing, he knew that his small factory couldn’t be made safe for the entire workforce. Two workers are still going into the factory to operate one of the robots, which Acworth said is permitted because it is supplying construction materials for projects that are allowed to proceed. Meanwhile, 13 other workers were sent home..
Advertisement
Luckily, Acworth had been working for years on a manual workstation to let workers quickly assemble sample mosaics by hand for inspection by clients. The team quickly assembled smaller, lighter versions of the machine. “It was really this crisis of COVID-19 that jumped us into making a quick-and-dirty desktop version,” Acworth said.
The Artiac workstation features a 30-inch computer monitor that rests face-up on a table. It has been hardened so the screen can act as a work surface. A custom-built computer, plugged into the monitor, displays a foot-square section of mosaic, with the color and code number of each piece of tile. Next, the worker places a see-through plastic grid on top of the screen. The grid has hundreds of chambers that line up exactly with the on-screen image, which acts as a map that guides workers into putting each little tile in its correct location, using batches of tiles delivered from the company.
A digital camera shoots an image of the finished section and compares it to the blueprint for the mosaic, revealing if any tile is out of place. Once finished, the section is covered with adhesive to seal the tiles in place. The foot-square section of the mosaic can now be shipped to the client, usually a building contractor who will assemble the handmade sections, like giant jigsaw pieces, into a complete mosaic that might decorate a hotel lobby wall or a hospital floor.
Advertisement
“It’s super easy and it makes it real convenient," said Jill Lydon, an Artaic worker in Jamaica Plain. About the only downside is the tedium, but Lydon’s learning to live with it. “That’s why I listen to a lot of podcasts," she said.
Nick DiVirgilio, a production supervisor who lives in Quincy, said it took just two days to distribute the systems to workers’ homes and resume manufacturing. Divirgilio said that making mosaics in his apartment didn’t come naturally at first, but by the second day, he literally felt right at home.
“It’s just very relaxing," he said, "and it beats taking the train in every day.”
Artaic did lay off two workers in early March, but Acworth blamed said this was due to a downturn in orders, not the pandemic. He said the company has plenty of work for those who remain. And until he can power up all of his robots once more, Acworth plans to fill orders the old-fashioned way — by hand.
“We got broadsided like everybody with this coronavirus crisis," he said. But in response, "we used good old American ingenuity.”
Hiawatha Bray can be reached at hiawatha.bray@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeTechLab.
"Factory" - Google News
April 27, 2020 at 02:19AM
https://ift.tt/2S7Xda3
Adapting to the crisis: Mosaic maker moves its factory operations to employee’s homes - The Boston Globe
"Factory" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2TEEPHn
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Adapting to the crisis: Mosaic maker moves its factory operations to employee’s homes - The Boston Globe"
Post a Comment