May 22nd - Last Day in Taiwan

On our last day in Taiwan, we visited the Bottlemate Cospro company. This company makes bottles for various companies: cosmetics, health care, beauty, etc. Their shop manufacturing facility is pretty much a small operation: around 400 employees.

Most of the jobs that are in this facility are machining: they place the material in the machine and the machine does the rest. Most of these machines print the labels and the many different designs that each product line requires.

Bottlemate heavily relies on quality control and assurance. At the end of every station, there are people that inspect every bottle and cap for defects. For example: when the company name and logos are printed on the bottle and the cap, just the smallest mistake or blotch is considered a reject and is thrown out. We were also shown how the bottles are made. It’s a very simple process. Warm plastic is dispensed into a machining mold and air is blown into it causing the plastic to expand and take the shape of the mold to create the bottle. When its created, it is placed into a large carton and taken to a sub-assembly station. This process takes about 2 minutes. Like I mentioned, this is a very simple but very important operation. 

After lunch, we visited the Chang Lien Cheng Saxophone Museum. Mr. Lien-Cheng pioneered the saxophone manufacturing in Taiwan with his enthusiasm and passion for the instrument creating the “LC” Brand. He was the first to create the handmade Saxophone creating an industry that has spanned over four generations.

Today, his four daughters carry on his legacy. They are avid Saxophone players and have been asked to play for dignitaries, political leaders and other grand events. In 2004, they were featured in a Toyota commercial playing their instruments while the vehicle was being described to the audience. The LC Brand is a very popular brand. It is owned by such people like Kenny G, President Bill Clinton and many other noted Saxophone players.

While we were visiting, some of us were allowed to try and play some of the different models of Saxophones even though we never had any experience. So Dr. Peng gave it "the ol' college try" and he did a pretty good try for a beginner.

Also, we were given a part of the Saxophone to create a special stencil by drawing a design, sticking it on the key and having a special machine create the image on the key. It was a tricky process but it was allot of fun.

I think my block M came out pretty good.