Process Engineering Internship
Andrew
Experience Information
Employer: Gentex Corporation
Job Title: Process Engineering Intern
Major: Mechanical Engineering
Received Credit: Yes
Paid: Yes
Abroad: No
Description of the Organization
Gentex is a company in Zeeland MI that mainly manufactures automatic-dimming mirrors. Almost all of the company's manufacturing and engineering is in Zeeland, with several small branches around the world. Gentex also has divisions that build dimming windows for use in commercial airplanes and also build fire protection equipment.
Description of the Tasks/Projects Completed
This summer I spent a lot of time doing different design work as well as hands-on building work. As far as the design work I did, I did things such as designing nests for parts to be held while different tests are done on them. I designed nests to hold some blind spot indicators that go in the outside mirrors of a car as well as several nests that hold entire mirrors while they are tested for the amount of torque that it takes to move the mount of the mirror. I also spent some time designing a vacuum system that deposits backings from a glass element into a trash can. When these backings are peeled off of the glass, they are very statically charged and stick to many different things including clothing causing a big mess. The system that I designed takes these liners and sucks them off of the operators hand and down into a trash can below, eliminating the mess that was caused before. I also designed several flow racks to present the material in better ways to the operators on the line and also got to build these flow racks in the tool room as well. There are many other projects that I worked on over the summer as well, these are just a few but overall it has been a very rewarding experience with a lot of good and challenging projects to work on.
Skills/Knowledge Gained Through The Experience
Through this experience I learned a lot more about how to effectively use CAD to design parts as well as entire machines. This was something I was not very strong in coming into this job but feel much more comfortable with it now after this experience. I also learned a lot more about good business practices and how to effectively implement lean manufacturing. This has been very beneficial to learn as well. I also learned many hands-on skills from being able to build a lot of the things that I designed which I will be able to use later on in life as well.
Favorite Part of the Experience
My favorite part was the variety of projects that I was given to work on which required a lot of different skills to complete which helped me to learn a great amount. I really loved the whole atmosphere of the company here and how everyone here is always willing to help out and answer any questions that we as interns might have so that we can better learn how to be good engineers.
How the Experience Influenced Future Career Goals
This experience really helped me learn more about what type of company I would like to work for in the future. I really enjoyed the whole atmosphere of the manufacturing side of the company so close to and tied into the engineering side of the company. Through the summer I also learned that I really enjoy working with SolidWorks and doing different design work so that is something that I would like to pursue more in the future as well. Overall it has been a great experience where I learned a lot about a lot of different things and it has been a very rewarding summer.