Magna Mirrors Engineering Co-op 1
Jacob
Experience Information
Employer: Magna Mirrors
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 with product engineers in the door handle product development department. Throughout the semester I helped with the design and validation of various handle projects for numerous leading car manufacturers. Since the facility I worked at is an R&D facility, I spent a lot of time in the tool shop and validation lab modifying and testing handles for ultimate strength, travel, effort, and CFM (air flow). I also completing freeze test studies to determine water ingress. Another big part of everything I worked on was documentation of what I was doing. I spent a lot of time creating DOE's (design of experiments) for the tests I performed as well as filling out design verification plan and reports and bills of material.
Skills/Knowledge Gained Through The Experience
This semester I gained lots of experience using 2D and 3D modeling systems, namely SpinFire and Geomagic Viewer. I used these software programs to examine scans of production parts for handle assemblies to determine warp of the material. I also gained extensive knowledge of the design and prototyping process of new products, as well as the validation and manufacturing of these products.
Favorite Part of the Experience
The highlight of my first co-op experience was being able to be a part of the start of a new handle project. Since most of the handle projects are around two years ahead of the car release, I will have the opportunity to completely work through one full handle project through out my three co-op semesters at Magna.
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.