This summer, I am interning at Northwest Indiana (NWI) Fabrication, a metal fabrication company in Merrillville, Indiana. NWI Fabrication is a shop that completes all types of metal fabrication for industrial and commercial jobs. Spanning from initial design to the finished product, the company specializes in metal fabrication, laser cutting, press brake, and welding.
I work on the floor and help the job from start to finish. I focus on initial designing using CAD (Computer Aided Design), then follow the process into laser cutting and press brake where I bent metal to the specification of the customer. My internship focused on getting to know the machines I was working with and how to create the product the customer wanted based on specifications only. I was even able to learn how to weld and assist with some products that required it.
One of my favorite aspects of the internship was the ability to see all the different parts that customers ordered and I was able to work on. Ranging from washers that were laser cut, brackets that were bent, or hanging hotel bars that expanded the length of the shop. I was able to see and experience so much variety on what I worked with, and how every product was made differently.
I really enjoyed the other aspect of engineering that I do not get a lot of in school, and that’s the hands-on aspect. I think this will make me a more well rounded engineer due to the fact that I experienced first hand what is or is not capable of doing during the actual fabrication process. Sometimes there were aspects that customers wanted that physically were not able to be accommodated once the metal was being manufactured. Throughout my schooling I have got a lot of theoretical knowledge on my major, however this summer I was able to work hands-on to manufacture products. – Anna Holloway