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Author: Cecilia Björsell

Good bye from the graduate engineers of 2014/2015

Good bye from the graduate engineers of 2014/2015

It is with certain sadness I realize that this is most certainly the last blog post I write on this blog. The new graduates started this Monday and it is time to leave the writing to them. Since last week we are not longer graduates, but “ordinary employees” here at GKN in Trollhättan.

When I look back, I can conclude two things: time flies by fast when you have fun and how many things we have done during this year! We have seen four departments each, got to learn so many things about the company and what we do. We have spent 3 months in the U.S. We have visited Volvo Cars in Gothenburg, Siemens in Finspång, SAAB and ACAB in Linköping, Scania in Södertälje, LKAB and Esrange in Kiruna, the Ice Hotel in Jukkasjärvi, Kiruna campus, Linköping University, PTC and the SAAB museum in Trollhättan, the GKN sites in Filton and Redditch, UK, GKN.plc in Redditch, UK, Delft University and ESTEC in Holland. We have greeted visitors from French and students from Chalmers. We have arranged a Christmas party and after work with Flying. We have met people from various positions at the company and asked them all kind of questions. We have eaten delicious meals at Bokenäs and learnt things about ourselves we never knew. We have laughed, discussed, been irritated with each other and in the next moment felt the privilege of being a graduate engineer!

Thank you to everyone who have taken time to meet us during the year and to those who have greeted us at their departments. Thank you to Magnus and Tina who have guided us through the year. And finally, to my colleagues in the group of Graduate Engineers 2014/2015 I only have one thing to say: YOLO! Now we know this!

BYE

Back in Trollhättan

Back in Trollhättan

After two weeks of relaxing vacation I am since last week back at the office in Trollhättan. The other graduates are still on vacation, but I chose to have a short one this year to get some sun in another country in later autumn. So I am already at my new desk where my work as a Design Engineer in the GEnx TRF project has just begun. Last week, it was almost spooky quiet here since the most of my colleagues were still on their vacation, which, if I’m being honest, made my days pretty slow. Not that I didn’t have anything to do; my colleagues have given me an enormous amount of reports, power points and web pages to read through. It was a good start since it gave me a crash course of the product, but after eight hours of technical reading each day my brain was pretty bruised. And here I though the studies were over for my part? Nope! So I’m looking forward to begin the “real work” now when my colleagues are back.

The “GEnx TRF”, what is that then? GEnx is one of GE’s engines that is being used in Boeing’s air crafts 787 Dreamliner and 747-8 (there are two versions of the engine, one for each air craft). The abbreviation stands for “GE Next Generation”. The abbreviations are by the way almost the hardest thing to understand… For those who understand technical data, I can tell that the engines have take-off thrust of 66,500-76,100 lbf, a fan diameter of 2,8 meters respectively 2,7 meters and has a 15% lesser fuel consumption that CF6, another of GE’s engines. I actually had the opportunity to look at the fan case when I was in Newington; it is a pretty impressive sight! TRF stands for “Turbine Rear Frame” and is the part in the end of the engine. It is also a quite amazing product since it has to withstand the high temperatures in the rear of the engine and the big loads it is subjected to, among other things.

One of the two engine models of GEnx
One of the two engine models of GEnx

Another fun thing is that we a couple of weeks ago got the names of the GKN graduates 2015/2016 that starts a month from now. The curiosity is great of course! Up till then the blog will probably be pretty calm, even if I surely pop in here every once in a while.

Keep calm until then!