Engineering Co-op
Kyle
Experience Information
Employer: Ultimate Gaging Systems
Job Title: Co-op student
Major: Mechanical Engineering
Received Credit: Yes
Paid: Yes
Abroad: No
Description of the Organization
Ultimate Gaging Systems is a sub-company of the Tooling Systems Group along with many other companies. UGS is a smaller machine shop with around 30 employees. UGS builds gages for manufacturers to ensure that their parts are built to the proper specs.
Description of the Tasks/Projects Completed
Throughout this summer i have done work on many gages for many different customers. Each gage is assigned to a specific experienced builder and i had the chance to help the builders complete gages by either machining parts for the gage or assembling the gage with them. I also had the opportunity of working in our CMM lab (Coordinate Measuring Machine) where i was able to measure the final stage of the gage to make sure that gage met our customers standards before we sent the final product to them.
Skills/Knowledge Gained Through The Experience
Working at UGS has extensively developed my machining skills as well as my ability to think creatively to build or fix a part of the gage. I am now able to make parts to with a very high accuracy. Working at UGS has also allowed me to become comfortable when looking at part designs and GD&T and confident in choosing the best way to complete the task.
Favorite Part of the Experience
My favorite part of working there is the endless possibilities with machining. When you become comfortable using the machines and understand what they are capable of doing, you begin to think of the endless opportunities you have at your hands. With that thought process also comes along the understanding that there are many ways of getting to the end result. I really like the aspect of thinking of ways to build or fix something and then choosing the most efficient way. Working at UGS has allowed me to think independently and open my mind up to so many more possibilities.
How the Experience Influenced Future Career Goals
Being a part of UGS has made me confident that i want to have a job where i can design parts and get the joy of the hands on building experience with it as well.