Page 18 - CMA PROfiles Summer 2016

Five Plant Tours in Two Days

he Minneapolis/St. Paul regional event was held May 18-19,
2016. This two-day event was jam-packed with activities starting
T early in morning and going until late in the evening.
The first day began at Anderson Corporation in Bayport, MN.
Upon arrival, headsets and eye glasses were distributed, and then we
walked in two separate groups through their 66-acre facility. It was
most certainly a lot of walking, but well worth it. One take-away was
their impressive re-use of their waste, scrap material and dust.
We then moved on to 3M and started out at their corporate In-
novation Center. After a brief history lesson, we entered the exclusive
World of Innovation, which is essentially a museum for 3M products.
They are grouped by type of product (i.e., abrasives, advanced mate-
rials) and each display focuses on the science behind the technology.
After some demonstrations and sufficient hands-on time, we tran-
sitioned to the CAM Center, which is their abrasives lab and wood
shop. We enjoyed lunch and then a presentation on coated abrasives
and the factors affecting finishing. This was followed by a tour of the
wood shop and a demonstration of their profile sanders and the im-
pact of proper dust collection on the sand quality. The visit concluded
with seeing their robot in action.

18 PROFILES • Volume 16 • Issue 3, 2016 • www.cabinetmakers.org