Aerobloggen

Hello everyone!

The snow has melted away here in Trollhättan and one can perhaps expect (hopefully!) the spring to arrive soon! We, the graduates, are in a relatively busy period with both common and individual projects happening at the same time. In addition to that some us are appointed to other projects not related to our rotations or the trainee group itself.

As we say in every new blog post, time really flies and it’s already time for us to start thinking about our next rotation as the current one will be finished before the Easter holidays. Both my previous and current rotation is focused towards calculations and analysis I will probably look into learning more about market & strategy in my next rotation. That’s the strength of the trainee program, being able to discover and learn about something completely new.

We’ve also started our shared trainee project which will go on for about 6 months. Our mission is to investigate different solutions for an automated composite manufacturing system. This is being done at Centre of Production Technology which is located at Innovatum in Trollhättan.  This is where GKN Aerospace and University West alongside other companies perform research on additive manufacturing and industrial automation. A short presentation video, although in Swedish, can be viewed below.

Normally, the trainees attend different career fairs and hold lectures on both universities and high schools. However, due to obvious reasons regarding the pandemic, these fairs and lectures are replaced this year by digital versions. The last couple weeks we’ve attended digital career fairs on Chalmers, Luleå University, Linköping University and Karlstads University which was a first for most of us. These career fairs were very successful and exceeded our expectations even if we’d all like to be onsite and meet people face-to-face!

Due to the same reason we haven’t been able to visit high schools to have inspirational lectures. But I, Emma and Marcus recorded a lecture last week which was targeted towards high school students graduating this year. We presented the company and shared our thoughts regarding university studies. Even though it felt a little unusual to stand before a camera in a studio environment it is these assignments that make the graduate program so fun and diverse!

I hope you all have a nice weekend!

Jens

Some time ago all graduates took part in a sustainability workshop hosted by the man in the picture, Zakir Hussain. The session turned out to be very inspiring and informative regarding GKN’s sustainability vision. We thought, who else than the host himself would be an ideal person to inspire a couple more. So, with us today we have Zakir Hussain talking about his own journey and why sustainability is important to him and GKN.

Hi my name is Zakir Hussain, a Global Grad from the UK. I joined the organisation in September of 2019 fresh out of university, where I studied Chemical Engineering. During my studies, I never thought I would be joining the Aerospace industry. However, when I attended my interview, I felt “this is a place I would see myself growing and developing in. GKN’s community seem to really care about who I am rather than focusing on what I am”. So I took the leap of faith and haven’t looked back since!

At GKN I have been given some really great opportunities to work on projects which are really significant. Such as, designing and implementing an Automated Defect Reporting System which combined tools from Lean Six Sigma and Industry 4.0, market analysis on Horizon 3 technologies for new business opportunities and to lead GKN’s Energy, Waste & Emissions Workstream for creating the Sustainability Strategy to help the organisation improve on its global sustainability. I have had real control over how much responsibility I would like as well as being able to pave my own career path. Moreover, I have had great opportunities to work and collaborate with seniors within the organisation very early on, such as The Director of Sustainability and The Vice President of Global Manufacturing Engineering Capability. For those who are considering GKN, I would say, ultimately you are really in control of the how, who and when elements of making your career fly!

There is a great support network here at GKN, ranging from mentors, coaches and buddies. These parties will look to support and guide you the best way they can, ranging from giving advice based on their personal experience good or bad to coaching you through how to find the answer and putting you in contact with parties whom may have the answer. In addition to this, in line with GKN’s principle of “Open and Honest” there is a real sense of comfort when seeking out support and help from all parties.

One key area of interest I have is Sustainability. Sustainability has been close to my heart for a large part of my life, during my university education I had a great deal of exposure to the issues, we as a race, are facing today which will be further exacerbated for future generations. I strongly believe as an engineer, there is an obligation to ensure society’s needs are being met in a sustainable way to not hinder future generations from meeting their needs.

Sustainability has become a real focus for GKN Aerospace in the past year. Being a Tier 1 company, GKN has a real opportunity to leverage its position in improving its own sustainability as well as its suppliers and customers. At the end of 2020, a new energy contract was signed, for all the Dutch sites to use 100% renewable electricity. This resulted in GKN reducing its global GHG emissions by 8-11% on a yearly bases. Moreover, to increase awareness and knowledge of the topic, I am leading a team where we are creating an e-learning module for our Manufacturing Engineers which will be rolled out and used globally. So far, from our beta-version, we have seen an increase in awareness and knowledge by 36%!

Thank you for taking the time to read what is ultimately, a testimony that GKN Aerospace is a great place to work.

Thank you,

Zakir Hussain

A Proud Graduate

Hello everyone! We can finally put 2020 behind us and look forward to a better year, which I am sure many of us have been doing for quite some time. I hope that this year we will be able to recover back to the old normal. Starting on the good news, the application process is open and will remain so until February 21! Apply to the graduate programme here!

We have also ended our first rotations and when returning to work after the holidays we have started our new ones. This is of course very special considering we all work from home but as time goes it feel more and more like the new normal. However, I personally look forward to the day where we can go back to the office!

At my new department, we are working with performance and control systems primarily for the RM12/RM16 engine in the Gripen fighter. Responsibilities include the FADEC (Full Authority Digital Engine Control) which is the computer for the RM12 engine that was developed in Trollhättan during the late 1090’s. My project however involves updating a performance model for the industrial gas turbine DR990 which suits me well with an aeronautical engineer background as gas turbines are very similar to aircraft jet engines.

DR990 is an industrial gas turbine in a two-shaft configuration. It consists of two centrifugal compressors with two turbine stages on the first shaft and finally a power turbine on a separate shaft. It was initially planned for usage in U.S. Navy patrol boats in the 1970s but was later reconfigured to an industrial application. It is mainly used today for pumping of natural gas.

Last friday, November 20th, Saab 91 Safir took to the skies for the first time. This aircraft was developed by Saab and during 1946-1966, 323 deliveries were made. In Sweden it was used for basic flight training (SK50) and to a certain extent for transport purposes (TP91). The aircraft was also exported to, amongst others, Austria, Norway and Finland.

But where do GKN Aerospace enter the picture?
Well, we’ve been manufacturing engines to Saab for almost a 100 years and in this case, “Trollet” (the troll) was supposed to be the engine of choice.

During WWII, Svenska Flygmotor AB in Trollhättan (which today is GKN Aerospace) had begun to develop a 4-cylinder, air-cooled flat engine which was given the name Trollet. It was assumed that the civil aerospace market would develop as rapidly as the military and the company wanted to position itself towards this new market. SFA F-541-A “Trollet” weighed 135 kg, had a displacement of 5.1 liters and developed 140 hp at 2500 rpm.

However, the civil market didn’t develop as anticipated and Trollet was never installed in the Safir as initially planned. A few years later, there was a need for air-cooled flat engines for installation in military vehicles whereupon Trollet was further developed and given the new designation B42. SFA received an order of 105 B42 engines from the Royal Army Administration, which was to be installed in the assault gun IKV103 (Infanterikanonvagn 103). These engines were delivered between 1956-1957.

This engine was further developed into the B44 which delivered 150 hp and in a format that allowed for easier maintenance. 230 engines were delivered for installation into the PBV301 IFV.
The troll thus remained on the ground, which, however wasn’t a failure but rather a success considering the newly found application and amount of deliveries.

This is just a mere snippet from our 90-year old history as a company. Much of the development that was carried out during the post-war period led to business opportunities and relationships with companies that still stand strong today and to which we still deliver products. Something that we are very proud of!

Hi there all readers!

A year ago, I was planning my master thesis. Already during the summer I started thinking about it. Many thoughts and questions but not as many answers. Would I stay in Luleå where I studied or would I move to the Stockholm area where I grew up or would I stay in Sweden at all? What company? Should I write only myself or with someone and if so, who? What are the pros and cons?

In September I started to look around for options and already at the end of September/ early October I had knew where I would carry out my degree project and what it would be about what but with whom was not clear until the beginning of December. In January 2020, I moved down to Södertälje, a town outside Stockholm, and began my thesis together with a classmate and just when we started to get into our project, a pandemic came and our whole setup had to be rethought. Also there, however, time went incredibly fast and suddenly it was June and digital presentations were held for both school and company and shortly afterwards, there it was, I had my diploma in hand.

Despite the fact that a pandemic has hit the whole world and companies as well as cities are shutting down, I am incredibly happy to be able to tell you that we will bring in thesis workers during the spring of 2021 again. If you, who are reading this, are thinking about writing your thesis, I highly recommend taking a look at the degree projects that can be carried out here with us at GKN Aerospace in Trollhättan.

You can find degree projects HERE and we regularly publish degree projects so if you don’t find anything right now, feel free to come back and check again in a while. However, do not wait too long to apply as I know that the last application date for some is already in mid-November and that selection may take place on an ongoing basis. If you have any questions or concerns about the thesis, there is contact information in each brief, or visit GKN’s website HERE . If you still have questions, you are of course welcome to contact us at aerotrainees@gknaerospace.com.

I hope to see you here in the spring!
Have a nice week,
My

Hello everyone!

It’s said that time flies when you’re having fun and these last weeks are no exception! All of us have now written a blog post about our initial impressions during the first time in the rotations. My first rotation and hence my home department is within solid mechanics that is responsible for performing calculations and analyses on both new and current products within the engine segment. In an aircraft engine, high loads and stresses occur as a result of (amongst other causes) high temperature differences, airflows and rotational velocities. These stresses must be verified such that materials and construction doesn’t fail and that flight safety is not compromised.

It’s a very interesting subject as the analysis becomes very detailed both in terms of design and physical effects that a component is subjected to. At the same time, a general understanding of the engine is required as all parts and systems are connected and therefore affects each other. With my background in aeronautics from university and flying in my spare time, I find it particularly exciting as GKN Aerospace is involved in several major engine programmes with Pratt & Whitney, Rolls Royce and General Electric (Read more here!)

We’re now heading into the fourth week of our first rotation. In mid-December we’ll conduct our second development week and until then we have some exciting activities planned outside of our daily work. More about that in future posts!

Until then, take care!

Jens

Hello people!

Time flies when you are having fun! The shot indicating the start of our seventh week has just been fired, and we have been through a lot, not the least two whole weeks at our first rotation. Initially it was a lot to take in, and learn about each respective placement. However, as each day passes we all feel that we are more and more in the game.

As Emma introduced last week, my first rotation is within quality. My first two weeks have been very eventful. Within quality people often refer to variation as the villain, but in my case it was the complete opposite. I was very glad to have a lot of varied tasks where no two days were the same. I have been reading up on quality standards, which is an important part within aerospace as there are more narrow requirements on the products and the way they are made. As a part of ISO9001 comes the process oriented management system, which is used to describe and guide the many processes in place. The idea is for me to review a subprocess and how it can become more of a living process, but more on that at a later stage. Other days I have spent time on the shopfloor to gather information for an improvement project that seeks to simplify how data is being visualized in one part of the production. Around all the specific tasks a lot of meetings take place, where I have gotten the chance to meet lots of nice people and simultaneously collect lots of new knowledge.

Finally, we as new graduates would like to send a big thanks to all our coworkers for the world class welcome. Also, don’t miss next week’s update. Jens will return to tell you all about his time in solid mechanics.

See you later!

/Robin

Hi all!

We have just finished our fifth week as trainees here at GKN Aerospace, but also our first week, out of 10, at our rotations. Each of us are at different departments within the company and we will be working with everything from quality and production to solid mechanics.

My first rotation is within a department that works with the supply chain. The goal is to gain an overall understanding of the supply chain, both regarding the day to day tasks but also their strategic work. My week started with a tour in one of the workshops and proceeded with me learning about everything from production planning to material flows and customer needs. In addition to the days being very educational, I had the opportunity to meet many people from different departments at the company, something that is always fun. It has been an intense week and I am sure that Robin, My, Marcus and Jens agrees with me when I say that it has been very rewarding!

Next week Robin will share his work at the quality department, see you then!

/Emma

Hi!

Our fourth week at GKN Aerospace was a so called activity-week, which means that two days were spent on group and leadership development while the remaining days were meant for study visits. Due to the COVID situation very few companies were interested in inviting outsiders to their sites, which resulted in that our study visits were much more limited than those performed by previous graduates.

During the development days there was a couple of group exercises done to get to know each other better and to investigate which roles we take on in different situations. These exercise were later used in order to relate the theoretical knowledge to our own actions. A lot of focus were spent on the stages that newly formed groups go through (forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning), how these stages impact the group members and what types of leadership styles that are efficient in the different stages. We also learned the basics regarding how human’s reacts to feedback and how feedback should be given in a constructive way in order to circumvent the natural defense mechanisms. These exercises were very interesting and my general opinion is that people need to become better at giving feedback.

Our first study visit was at GKNs own Global Technology Center (GTC) here in Trollhättan where we got a warm welcome, a presentation of the purpose of GTC and a guided tour. We got the opportunity to see some advanced additive manufacturing methods that they are investigating and the composite manufacturing laboratory where they are trying to automatize the process of building composite turbine blades.

The second place that we visited were the Swedish air-base F7 in Såtenäs, where we watched how the technicians prepare the Swedish fighter aircraft JAS before take-off and a couple of take-offs.  This was combined with a presentation of how the flight technicians work in general, what type of maintenance they perform on the fighter jets between flights and a close up inspection of the fighters that were currently in the maintenance hangar. I was very impressed by this visit since I have never seen the JAS-fighters in action on such a close distance before.

As a whole it was a couple of exiting days with a lot of laughter and I got the feeling that I have learned new things about all group members. Now are all the trainees preparing for new adventures and starting this week will we be on our first rotations. I will start at the manufacturing engineering department but I still don’t know what type of projects I will be working on.

See you soon.

Hello!

Last week we ended our workshop practice with presentations and tours to share with each other about what we had learned during the week. We were all in a bit different places to be able to broaden our understanding and product knowledge about the parts being manufactured here in Trollhättan. I myself followed details, so-called discs, which will later on be put in some of Pratt & Whitney’s engines (as you can see in the picture below). It was really interesting to see how the large amount of different products, which required different processing and different amount of time, actually went through the stream since these parts does not count as high volume products at the company. On behalf of the group, I would also like to take the opportunity to thank everyone out in the workshops who showed us around and shared their knowledge and took care of us during these days and I hope to see you again soon!

Due to the current situation, we have unfortunately not had the opportunity to do a physical onboarding as the previous trainees did at the beginning of the program, but luckily there is internet! J Since we started at GKN, we have started an online onboarding where we had the opportunity to listen to exciting guest speakers, participated in Q&A’s, broaden our understanding of principles, engagement and group development as well as we have gotten to know the trainees from last year’s group thanks to online meetings.

This week will be our first activity week where we will now continue to learn about group development and group dynamics. We are also very happy that we managed to book some study visits, but exactly where we are going and how it was, you will find out next week!

Hope you had a good weekend and I wish you a nice week and we will be in touch again soon!

/My