During the summer of 2019 I was able to intern at AB&I Foundry in Oakland, CA where I was welcomed by the wonderful people who work there. They mainly produce recycled cast iron soil pipe, pipe fittings, and other small run orders.
Since I had a background in safety, the work that I did mainly focused on MRAs (Machine Risk Analyses). This meant that I got to go around the foundry floor and learn how all the different processes and machines worked. Through this, I covered about 95% of the factory floor and saw every operation run. I also got to propose potential corrective action items that would remedy any safety hazard that was found that could be improved. On some of these corrective actions, I was then able to design the solutions and work with the team members that are currently putting the corrective actions into place. After I completed the MRA, I would lead a meeting to review the information with my mentor, other engineers, safety personnel, and the relevant department supervisor.
In addition to the MRAs, I also got to work with some of the production data in order to understand if the improvements that were made on a machine were matching predictions. I compiled the data to give forecasts on potential savings which was then used to justify continuing the improvements on other machines.
I also learned how to use AutoCAD. I was tasked with converting hand drafted drawings that were going to be referenced in upcoming revisions on older equipment. Other drawings that I worked on were referenced in the fabrication of the corrective actions mentioned earlier, as well as an ongoing project to update and maintain the foundry sitemap.
I continued to work on some of the projects that I had started during the fall quarter after my summer internship.