Trans-Matic Experience
Sam
Experience Information
Employer: Trans-Matic
Job Title: Engineering Intern
Major: Mechanical Engineering
Received Credit: Yes
Paid: Yes
Abroad: No
Description of the Organization
Trans-Matic is one of the world's leading metal stamping companies. They manufacture precision deep drawn components and assemblies for the automotive, builders hardware, appliance, plumbing, power tools, and other markets throughout the world. They have facilities in Holland, MI; Suzhou, China; Mesa, AZ; and Monterrey, Mexico which house a variety of presses from 5 to 600 tons. The Holland plant houses about 200 employees and is approximately 77,000 square ft.
Description of the Tasks/Projects Completed
During my first rotation at Trans-Matic I handled a lot of updating and redesigning existing tooling in the presses. Each production job has tooling originally designed that fits into the presses to produce specific features on the part. These designs go through constant changes as the tools wear down or industry standards change. This was all done using the latest version of Creo (3D CAD software). Besides doing redesigns I also had many other opportunities such as designing gages to test that parts in production met customer specifications and chances to get more up close looks at the assembly machines.
Skills/Knowledge Gained Through The Experience
Trans-Matic has been a great place to work, through which I gained many skills. Working here definitely helped me become better at working with other individuals as part of a team. I learned a lot about the process of precision deep metal drawing, how transfer presses work, and the advantages of different styles of presses. I gained a lot of knowledge about industrial standards in drafting and had the great opportunity to practice using a lot of CAD software. I also gained a lot of valuable experience learning about different properties of materials.
Favorite Part of the Experience
My favorite part about my first rotation was getting to work with other people who have been in the industry for a while. Trans-Matic is a world class deep draw manufacturing company, so the interactions I had with other employees were all invaluable. Everyone was incredibly helpful and would go out of their way to make sure I understood what I was doing. The best part of the experience was learning about a lot manufacturing standards that were knew to me and working with a great group of people.
How the Experience Influenced Future Career Goals
My first rotation at Trans-Matic has helped me understand more of what it takes to be a professional engineer. It really helped open my eyes to how to the many different industries engineers work in, helped me get a sense of the kind of people I want to work with, and the field I want to be in.