MT Magazine September/October 2024

FEATURE STORY

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2024

17

Not surprisingly, the assembly of the satellite thrusters is performed under clean-room conditions. (Image courtesy of Orbion.)

area’s nickname, “Copper Country.” That building now serves as the headquarters of Orbion. And while perhaps it is merely a coincidence, it does seem fitting that the company produces electrical thrusters. Outside of Orbion is the Portage Lake Lift Bridge, which provides vertical lift to accommodate boat traffic beneath it. The bridge, opened in 1959, was named a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 2022. It is the world’s heaviest and widest double decked vertical-lift bridge in the world. Clearly when the counterweights, pulleys, and cables are in action, there are some non-trivial vibrations that occur that must be discernable within Orbion's manufacturing operations at their headquarters. Panella says that while that is the case, there is another building about a mile away where they do the testing, which isn’t affected by the bridge in action. However, Houghton gets an average annual snowfall of 202 inches.

“During the winter, they remove snow by putting it in dump trucks,” Panella says. It is then moved to designated transfer stations. “They drive by our building. You can feel the floor vibrate as the trucks go by.” After all, some 17 feet of snow is a lot to handle. “We’ve been able to filter out the effects when doing the testing,” Panella says. Despite these small inconveniences, Orbion seems right at home. While most people may have only vaguely heard of Houghton, it is a locale with a lot of engineering prowess – and scenic, to boot.

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