Experience Matters - Grand Valley State University

EGR Co-op Third Rotation

Reid
Major: Mechanical Engineering This semester I worked primarily in the mechanical design group. I had numerous projects where I was the only engineer assigned to the project. On the majority of my projects I was supplied with data from the customer and was required to fully design a machine that would meet the customer's requirements.

Amazing Hands-On Padnos Co-op

Jason
Major: Mechanical Engineering This semester we have been installing a new non ferrous metal mining plant. I have been assigned design work, drawing/detailing, overseeing of fabrication, surveying, product sampling, and experiment design/implementation; among a variety of other tasks.

Real Experience

Tyler
Major: Mechanical Engineering I worked as a student engineer at Midway. My job was to prepare operational manuals for all the equipment that was designed and built. This required me to have extensive knowledge in the mechanical function of all equipment I was assigned to. I also had to review equipment models/drawings to ensure no parts would interfere with one another and that proper GD&T was practiced.

Third Times a Charm

Nick
Major: Mechanical Engineering Analyse and design parts used on hydraulic cylinders Designed and updated floor plan layout of building Organized the return department to track ongoing quality issues Designed tooling to ensure quality of seals during assembly Investigate floor changes throughout the manufacturing process Helped standardize parts for quicker lead times Devised an engineering test plans for performance testing of inserts Organized tooling and machine lists to optimize efficiency Headed machine repair software to schedule machine maintenance Designed a torque bench for assembling or dis-assembling large cylinders

Engineering Co-op

Conlin
Major: Mechanical Engineering Daily Tasks: 1) Walk-around to ensure production being maintained a. Making sure processes are being followed (Standard Work) b. Watch for waste in processes c. Solve issues identified by Members d. Make sure areas are 5S compliant 2) Quality Control a. Ensure parts are being hung properly, i.e. Correct Rack and Orientation b. Ensure parts being unloaded onto correct racks 3) Performance a. Ensure line density is to standard per part and rack b. Check to make sure members are being flexed properly Also worked on Projects for paint line, component assembly, and the warehouse

1st Co-op Semester

Matt
Major: Mechanical Engineering As an intern with previous knowledge of Pro Engineer (Creo), I was able to fill a need in the outside mirrors division as an FEA resource. I performed both static load and force frequency response analyses on many mirror programs. I then was also able to take my results and apply changes to the model in order to make recommendations as to how to make improvements.

Automation Sensation

Andrew
Major: Mechanical Engineering I worked on projects with more experienced engineers, completing smaller parts of their larger projects. I would do ProE CAD modeling and drafting frequently. I would also work in the quoting office, estimating costs and writing proposals for new work that the sales team would bring in.

Co-op at BISSELL

Thaddeus
Major: Mechanical Engineering I ran tests on dry time and cleaning score of carpets, designed and prototyped concepts for a side brush and foaming nozzle, and gathered data from the company database and the internet.

Designing at JR Automation

Lauren
Major: Mechanical Engineering During this co-op, I was in the mechanical engineering department at JR Automation. One of my big projects was designing a robotic cell that assembled a chair frame. All of the modeling was done in Pro/E. I took it all the way from kick-off to release and went through the design process of concepting, modeling, getting approval, detailing, checking, and releasing the project. I also worked on modifying and adding on to previously designed projects.

First Time Around

Nick
Major: Mechanical Engineering I had three major projects during the semester along with many other small ones. My first project was to fix the steel plug problem. Some customers request steel plugs which cost about $0.75 per plug and some cylinders require up to four. All other customers get plastic cap plugs which are fractions of a penny. My job was to find the jobs that required steel plugs and add them to the bill of material so the inventory was correct and our costs were accurate. My next job was to try and standardize the tangs. First I had to clean up the descriptions and dimensions so the parts could be easily searched. The overall goal was to find parts that are used repeatedly and have high usage. Out of about 370 tangs we have, about 40 of them consisted of 70% of the tangs used in the last year. By making these parts standard we can order larger amounts and save money making less custom parts. Another benefit was to have a list of parts that can be made from a standard part which will add to the total usage of the standard part. My final project of the semester was to design a torque multiplier or a "Nut Buster". Basically we will be having some large cylinders come through the shop and we needed a device that will be able to torque the nut on and off. By bench-marking I was able to find a design another company had used and was able to make a similar design, why reinvent the wheel was my though. So by using two cylinder and a ratcheting system we can create about 26,000 foot pounds of torque. This system is mounted to a 14 foot long table with adjustable v-block rests and a brace to hold the other end of the cylinder. Very fun project to end the semester and it was nice being trusted with designing a machine we have never made before.

Gentex Summer 201

Dan
Major: Mechanical Engineering Worked on an assembly line for the first week to become familiar with processes. Shadowed a Production Support Engineer to become familiar with troubleshooting the automation equipment. Constructed automation guarding using 8020 extruded aluminum. Completed multiple design projects using SolidWorks and had the parts fabricated by submitting tech drawings to the tooling department. A number of projects also required significant research for proper materials to use.

Summer 2012 Mill Steel Co-op

Ryan
Major: Mechanical Engineering I tested steel samples in the lab for chemical and physical properties, reviewed these test results to verify accurate properties, and worked with business representatives to fit individual steel coils to matching customer orders.

Everything is bigger at Padnos

Nathan
Major: Mechanical Engineering I did everything from detailing a small handle on a hydraulic line to redesigning a conveyor belt, which included measuring the belt and the guards on the belt, taking the information and processing it in SolidWorks, redesigning the belt, and then sending the work down to the machine shop and finally seeing it taken out as a finished product. I was kept pretty busy throughout the semester with a variety of projects resulting in a variety of experiences for me.

My Internship at JR Automation

Colin
Major: Mechanical Engineering I was a concept and cost engineer, or quoter. I completed quotes for machinery. My job started by receiving the request for quotation from our salesman, doing the necessary research, concepting, and preliminary design for the quote, and ended by getting approval from the necessary personnel and having the quote sent to the customer.

Trane Internship

Luke
Major: Mechanical Engineering I worked on the graphical user interface between for the HVAC equipment and modified control drawings for the instillation of HVAC controlling equipment.

EGR290 Co-Op

Artur
Major: Mechanical Engineering Working alongside the Process Engineer I worked on designing and improving patterns. These patterns are attached to a giant machine called the DISAMATIC(video) that compresses and makes impressions in a special type of sand. Molten metal is poured into these molds. After cooling the solid metal part comes out at the other end.

Envirotronics gives practical experience!

Jeffrey
Major: Mechanical Engineering I started out by going through a lot of the old prints and updating scrap costs. By doing so I began to understand how they organized their prints. I did some cataloging of parts which helped me to understand how important correctly labeling parts is. I also did some excel documents that dealt specifically with engineering calculations. I did some designing of simple parts that were to be used on projects using AutoCAD and Pro E. Using those same programs I redesigned a few chambers so that they could be sent out for customer approval (mostly editing the drawings and parts, not actual design work). I also did a lot of dimensioning/editing of drawings for other engineers.

A Grand Experience, at Johnson Controls

Omar
Major: Electrical Engineering I learned the specifications for two products that are being released in a future model of a major car brand, and applied that to the testing that was conducted on the software. I automated the testing on certain features to save time on current/future testing on this product and future products similar to it.

Mill Rebuild

Nathan
Major: Electrical Engineering Provided instructions on how to install welding gas regulators on several welding cells. Also provided support on the major overhaul of one of their many rolling mill lines.

JR Automation Co-Op

Wiliam
Major: Electrical Engineering I was a part of a large team of controls engineers. This specific project is expected to last over a year and will be the largest yet though JR. My part in the project was to assist in the electrical/ pneumatic drawings and other data that the customer required. On a day to day basis, I checked drawings, created drawings, designed enclosure layouts, performed heating, pneumatic, and electrical calculations for the controls engineers that I work with.

Robotics at its Best - CO-OP I

Ryan
Major: Electrical Engineering My first month at JR involved editing electrical and pneumatic prints, minor PLC programming, and HMI programming for a large assembly line. After the assembly line was finished, I was assigned my own project. I started off by spec'ing the right components for the machine, and performing power and pneumatic calculations. The next step was electrical, pneumatic, and control panel design. After the design and bill of materials were approved by the customer, I started the PLC and HMI programming. The last phase I was involved in before the semester ended was powering on the machine and debugging my code.

Traveling The World as an Engineer

Christian
Major: Electrical Engineering I worked as a controls engineer. which means my primary objective was to design, test and commission massive pieces of industrial machinery and robotics

A Summer w/o Wires

Chris
Major: Electrical Engineering This summer I did the majority of my work with receiver testing. This involved testing numerous receivers that had a wide variety of issues. Early on, the weak link within the system was the Lightning connector, then after some full charging tests, a thermal issue was discovered, so I got to do the testing & solution for that issue as well. Throughout the semester I was also the sole Engineer designing a detection circuit in a powerful Magnetic Field.

Automation Technology at JR

Kevin
Major: Electrical Engineering Tasks for projects completed were schematic diagrams of pneumatic and electrical systems for both Nissan and Ford in which processes included application of urethane and other hazardous material. Other tasks included programming vision software assisted cameras to distinguish vehicle door handle parts in a stage of a complex process. Also, other tasks included staging and some programming of human machine interface software for operator and machine communication. These large projects are ongoing and long term commitments are essential to the success of these projects.

Co-op at Visteon

Chris
Major: Electrical Engineering Power supply efficiency testing on Telematics Control Unit (TCU) Back-up battery temperature testing under loading for TCU DTMF signal processing using FFT analysis Prototyping with constant current for LED indicators for TCU integration Prototyping audio amplifiers for TCU integration Prototyping SEPIC/Boost DC-DC converters for TCU integration