Internship at Lincoln Industries

Integration Engineering Intern

 February 2025 - present

The Experience

Daily Tasks:

• My normal day consisted of tooling design work for the parts to be manufactured in the plant. The role of an integration engineer, generally, is to take the print and other requirements from another company and do everything to get the part production ready. This involves going through the production part approval process (PPAP), filling out the paperwork, and submitting it on time to be approved by the partner company. The tooling I primarily focused on was trim blocks, insulation patterns and locators, drill locators, and expansion fixtures.

Challenges:

• The biggest challenges I've encountered have been entirely based on discrepancies between the CAD models and the parts we make in real life. Many tools have required alterations to fit the part due to slight dimension changes to match other requirements. Sometimes, these tools don't fit correctly, and we cannot find a reason for that, which is often the most frustrating. From some tools, I've been able to learn better ways to design these tools and make them work the first time for other parts, but most of the time there's always a trial-and-error aspect.

Learnings

Skills:

• When it comes to technical skills, I feel as though I've become proficient in using SolidWorks, even to the point of soon getting my SolidWorks Associate certificate. Also, I believe my problem-solving and communication skills have improved significantly due to exposure to these processes, as well as leading my own meetings for a small project I was given.

Industry and Process Insight:

• This internship was very valuable in learning the overall print-to-part process in large-scale manufacturing. While I was most involved in the PPAP process, I also learned how each of the production processes work and what the operators need from me to do their job more effectively. I'm very grateful for the opportunity of going out onto the manufacturing floor and working with everyone there to determine the best way to solve each problem. If I couldn't do this, I would not have been as effective at my job as expected of me.

Future Applications

Career Impact:

• This internship has been very beneficial in showing me what I like and don't like within my chosen field. 

• I've gained some incredibly important experience that helped me understand the general process of being an engineer and manufacturing parts, but I'd love to move more into the aerospace field as I continue looking for new opportunities.

•  I enjoyed the design and implementation aspect of this job, especially due to the quick turnaround on my designs where I could determine any issues and correct them in a timely manner. 

• Since the future remains uncertain, I want to remain open to any and all opportunities, even if they don't exactly align with my current goals, to ensure I am able to determine what is best for me moving forward. 

• I hope to use all these skills, along with many others, to become more qualified for future positions and continue building my experience portfolio!