Engineering Co-op at Emerald
Trent
Experience Information
Employer: Emerald Corporation
Job Title: Engineering Co-op Intern
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering
Received Credit: Yes
Paid: Yes
Abroad: No
Description of the Organization
Emerald Corporation specializes in engineered decorative solutions and has a wide range of decoration capabilities. Emerald's production floor contains an automotive quality robotic paint line with five paint booths, a smaller spindle paint line, multiple plastic injection molding presses, multiple laser etching machines, a screen-printing room with a UV line and a solvent line as well as a newly added digital printing room. Emerald is a smaller company which allows for a great atmosphere to work in. The team at Emerald is a very tight knit group which makes it very easy to communicate with all members of the team. Overall Emerald is a great company to work for and always has many interesting projects in progress.
Description of the Tasks/Projects Completed
During my first co-op semester I was able to design fixtures for multiple projects and was responsible for taking my ideas all the way through the design and manufacturing process. I became trained on the laser etching machines as well as the digital printer and used the machines frequently for different trials and engineering studies. I was able to obtain some experience with Emerald's quoting process as well to help supply accurate quotes to all of our customers. I was also able to be included in multiple DOE (Design of Experiments) studies to determine the root cause of some issues that arose and move forward with solving them.
Skills/Knowledge Gained Through The Experience
I was able to become very efficient with 3d design using Solidworks and also learned how to properly read and interpret an engineering drawing. I gained communication skills by working with suppliers, customers, and the Emerald team to accomplish all of my tasks. I gained a background knowledge of many different manufacturing processes and what all goes into producing any product. I gained technical skills by learning how to use the laser etching machines and digital printer as well as many other systems that Emerald has on their production floor.
Favorite Part of the Experience
My favorite part of my co-op experience was getting to see my ideas and designs come to life and be manufactured. It was very rewarding to see my designs become actual parts that served an important purpose.
How the Experience Influenced Future Career Goals
This experience helped me to realize that I am pursuing a career in the correct field because I enjoyed the work that I was doing.