A company that specializes in horizontal load transfers had been tapped by a Chinese firm to design and execute the 11,625 square-foot stage area of the main Olympic venue – the Bird’s Nest – yet because of a nondisclosure agreement, the company couldn’t talk about their work.
|
Said Lounis, President of Serapid |
In the months leading up to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Serapid, a Sterling Heights, MI-based company, was busy, but they couldn’t tell anyone why.
The company, which specializes in horizontal load transfers, had been tapped by a Chinese firm to design and execute the 11,625 square-foot stage area of the main Olympic venue – the Bird’s Nest – yet because of a nondisclosure agreement, the company couldn’t talk about their work.
Said Lounis has worked for Serapid since 1989 when he was hired to help the then-French company expand into the United States. Using his engineering background and experience as a field engineer with Matal, he helped launched Serapid in the United States in 1992.
In this PD&D Fireside Chat, Lounis, now president of Serapid, talks about his start in the industry, the experience of working on a high-profile project, and Serapid’s reputation in the industrial and theater industries.
PD&D: How did you get your start in the industry?
Said Lounis:I got my engineering degree in the U.K. and started out as a mechanical engineer. I got a job with a French company, Matal, where I was a field engineer. They would give me a plane ticket and a packet of prints and tell me to build it. It could be anything; I was doing turnkey installations all over the world.
Subsequently, I quit [working for Matal] and branched off on my own. When I branched off I was basically hiring myself out to European companies to develop markets for their products in the U.S., and to design things that were more American-suited than European products. This is what brought me to Serapid.
PD&D: Serapid was part of the opening ceremonies for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Can you talk about the experience of working on a project in such a public venue?
|
National Stadium during the closing ceremony for the 2008 Olympic Games on August 24, 2008 in Beijing, China. Serapid designed and built the main lifts in the Bird’s Nest. |
Lounis: The experience was awesome. We were contacted by a very large, government-owned, Chinese company. They contacted us to design and build the main lifts for the Bird’s Nest, the main stadium of the Beijing Olympics.
We were sworn to secrecy up to the opening ceremony. We tried to capitalize on the marketing aspect of it after the opening ceremonies, but the impact was much less than we had hoped. It was an amazing experience because we worked hand-in-hand with the Chinese to develop and apply our technology to that application.
They had an amazing concept and spent so much money on this project. They wanted to have the floor of the stadium, where people run and compete, to be a lift. About half of the floor in the center was composed of 13 different lifts that operated independently.
The challenge was quite daunting from a technical engineering standpoint. Not only did we have to lift 600 tons, but we had to do it over a stroke of 23’ (7 m). The lifts were double-scissor lifts, and because these lifts were next to each other they couldn’t wobble. At the full extension the whole structure could not move by more than ¼” with a force of ½ ton applied to its side. It was a very difficult specification to meet, but we did.
People were going to be jumping and running on the lifts, and they needed to move very quickly. When the lifts were changing during the opening ceremony they had very little time. They needed to open and close and raise and lower in a very short time. It was quite the task, but we’re very proud of that project.
PD&D: I also saw Serapid is involved in the theater industry.
Lounis: In theater we do stage and orchestra lifts. We also do scenery transfer systems — wagons that are on wheels which can be very heavy. We’re doing a project in Indiana where the wagon weighs 160,000 pounds. At the University of Wisconsin, we moved a shell for an organ that weighed over 300 tons with over 100 feet of travel.
PD&D: What are your philosophies when it comes to developing new products?
Lounis: I think it is essential for the survival of a company to have a product that’s one step ahead of the competition. It’s not enough to have a product that meets the expectation of the customer. The only differentiation is whether the technology of your product is ahead or on-par with the competition. If [your product] is on-par with the rest of the market, the only way you can win is by lowering your price, and that is a bad position to be in.
And if you design a product, make sure there’s a market for it.
PD&D: From an industry perspective, what keeps you up at night?
Lounis: One thing I take to heart is ethics, and the reputation of the company. I want to develop a company that has a reputation for quality, but also a company that is responsible to its customers, suppliers, and employees. Anything that puts a blemish on that worries and concerns me.
PD&D: Is there any advice you’d like to offer to young engineers in your field?
Lounis: First, I would tell young engineers to really focus on the technical side of things. The thing that’s going to make an engineer valuable and strong is expertise. He really needs to be an expert in the field he’s in.
Second, I would recommend all engineers widen their field of knowledge. In other words, get out of the daily routine — read magazines, inform yourself, go to trade shows, go online, and research what’s being done in other fields and how that relates to your own field. Everything is intertwined; everything is tied together. If you want to advance in your career, you need to learn more than what is just going on in your own field.
Engineering is a very passionate, interesting field and I think it’s getting a bad rap. It’s true that it’s really hard work to get into, but the truth of the matter is, for me, there isn’t a job that is more challenging and interesting than engineering. My message to the young people out there is to please consider engineering. We don’t have enough people. It’s a highly paid profession and it’s an extremely interesting one.
For more information, please visit www.serapid.com.
