Palladium Energy Facility Manaus, Brazil
Last week, Tom Larsen, strategic marketing manager, and I were fortunate enough to make a week-long trip to our manufacturing facility in Manaus, Brazil—built in 2007.
The flight down was fairly easy—only six and a half hours total—and what a beautiful country. When the clouds broke and I could see land—WOW—what an amazing sight! The Amazon wrapped by the deep green jungle was absolutely, well, amazing. I knew I was not in the U.S. anymore!
Brazil Operations, Sales & Marketing
So, why were we there? Due to the laws, tariffs and other regulations, our Brazil business is inherently different than the rest of our global business. Plus, we manufacture other power solutions in Brazil besides just battery packs (unlike our Shanghai and U.S. facilities).
Rebecca, photo assistant and Tom
Since we documented our Shanghai facility in early March 2011, it was time to capture (via still photography) our state-of-the-art Brazil facility and the processes within for manufacturing battery packs, AC Adapters and PCB’s as well as spend some quality time with the operations and sales teams. Some highlights include:
- Capturing our Unique Battery Pack Manufacturing Processes: In Brazil, we have more automated battery pack manufacturing processes—including a proprietary laser labeling process—so cool!
- AC Adapters: Palladium’s AC Adapter process is absolutely mind-blowing. With so many pieces and parts to assemble as part of the overall electrical system of the AC Adapter, so much precision is needed—and we check for quality every step of the way.
- PCBs: With over five SMT lines and plan to add a sixth line this year, our PCB assembly process is all automated and designed for extreme accuracy. All PCB’s are used in the AC Adapters and battery packs we manufacture in Brazil.
From L to R: Proprietary battery pack laser labeling system; QC in AC Adapter assembly line; PCB manufacturing on automated SMT line
After eating way too much Brazilian BBQ (all red meat—think Fogo de Chao in the U.S.), it was time to leave. It was a great trip and we stayed in basically the same time zone—easy on the body clock! It will be so great to have the photos needed to give our Brazil facility the proper highlighting it deserves.
– Rebecca Kritzman, director of marketing
