Gentex Co-Op Round 2
Andrew
Experience Information
Employer: Gentex Corporation
Job Title: Co-op Intern
Major: Mechanical Engineering
Received Credit: Yes
Paid: Yes
Abroad: No
Description of the Organization
Gentex is a global, high technology electronics company that is managed by engineers and others who understand the freedom and discipline that's required to run an entrepreneurial company. It is a unique, profitable company that is vertically integrated in highly automated electronics, CMOS camera development and manufacturing, vacuum coatings, and glass bending and fabrication. They specialize in a broad spectrum of technologies and processes to deliver high quality products to the automotive, aerospace and fire protection industries.
Description of the Tasks/Projects Completed
I worked in the glass bending department, the beginning of the process to complete an exterior electrochromic mirror. The vast majority of the manufacturing line components are designed by engineers at Gentex, and that lends itself to a lot of flexibility for future design improvements. I was given several projects to redesign a current component in the process, or design a completely new fixture in the case of additional safety or process count checks. I was also able to complete a previously started project of doing a tool redesign in the device that we use to level our glass bending process. I was able to update the design and technology used to take what was once a 4 hour process to one nearly half as long.
Skills/Knowledge Gained Through The Experience
I learned a lot of hands on problem solving skills, attempting on the fly to find the best solution for a given problem. There was a lot of little design aspects that I gained appreciation for, mainly that in a manufacturing environment, something has to be easy to use, hard to break, and easy to fix if it does get broken.
Favorite Part of the Experience
The best part of this co-op round was the increased freedom I had to not only choose some projects that I was interested in, but also have the freedom (and responsibility) to see them through from design to implementation, to review.
How the Experience Influenced Future Career Goals
It has definitely influenced my decision to trend into a more mechanical design aspect of engineering, rather than process engineering. I enjoy the physical aspect of designing and implementing something, and being able to see immediate results.