Magna Mirrors Engineering Co-op 2
Jacob
Experience Information
Employer: Magna Mirros
Job Title: Product Engineering Co-op - Door Handles
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering
Received Credit: Yes
Paid: Yes
Abroad: No
Description of the Organization
Magna Mirrors is a division of Magna International, one of the worlds largest automotive suppliers. Magna International employs 174,000 employees across 29 countries, with around 100 of them located at the Magna Mirrors facility in Kentwood. Magna Mirrors is a global leader in the innovation and production of full mirror systems and outside door handles. With expertise in product creation, design, engineering, testing, validation and manufacturing of interior mirrors, exterior mirrors, actuators and door handles.
Description of the Tasks/Projects Completed
This semester I worked along side product engineers in the door handle product development department. Throughout the semester I helped with the validating and prototyping of various door handles for numerous car manufacturers. I spent a good majority of my time working on durability and ultimate strength testing for door handles. Along with that I did an in depth DOE on salt water submersion tests and its impact on the capacitors in electronics. I was also given my own design project/DOE for developing the next generation of switches that will be used in Magna's future door handles.
Skills/Knowledge Gained Through The Experience
This semester I gained experience using and programming a PLC. This new knowledge was used to help set up and test door handle efforts in the validation lab. I also furthered my knowledge of the design, validation and manufacturing of products.
Favorite Part of the Experience
The highlight of my second co-op experience was all of the people that I worked with. Some of my coworkers became very close friends of mine and working with them made it all that better. Everyday during lunch we would play euchre which was a nice break away from work.
How the Experience Influenced Future Career Goals
Working at Magna Mirrors this semester reassured me that engineering was the field that I wanted to go into. It was a nice distribution of working at a computer and working out in the validation lab or tool shop.