Aerobloggen

We graduates have now landed back at the office again after an amazing Sweden tour! This Monday we once again took a seat in our dear van to visit interesting companies such as SAAB, ABB and GKN Driveline.

We were very excited prior the meeting with SAAB since we would be given the opportunity to see the final assembly of JAS Gripen, our Swedish fighter which we in Trollhättan have designed and manufactured several versions of its engine. SAAB’s current graduates greeted us; it was of course nice to hear more about SAAB as a company as well as how their graduate scheme is like. It was fascinating to see the final assembly of JAS Gripen. To be standing under a fighter does not count as ordinary and we was able to see the talented fitters who assembled by hand (!). We ended the visit with a pleasant dinner together with all the graduates.

Once in Linköping we with took the opportunity to work at LARM (Linköping university work fair), thereof the “waitress” outfit, and visit the Air force museum.

On the road again to ABB in Västerås and their Graduates. They are a whopping 16 people who kindly organized everything from a dinner, to a company presentation by Dennis Helfridsson (Vice President ABB Robotics Sweden), a tour through the robot factory and inspiring activities in their robotics lab.

The Sweden tour was finished off with a visit at our sister company GKN Driveline in Köping. An impressive visit led by Peter Sköld (SCIL Leader) where we had change to see the differences between the two businesses. A high degree of automation, which is explainable since they manufacture millions of components in a year. The pace is not as high in Trollhättan…

To conclude, an amazing trip with various types of visits and an opportunity to create good relations with other graduates and leading figures within the companies. Cannot wait until next trip!

/Lisa

As you have read in previous blog posts we graduates had the opportunity to visit interesting companies around Europe before going on Christmas holidays. We have travelled countless miles together in our mini-van, closer to 4000 km (!), where our second stop was in Papendrecht, Netherlands.

Of course, we wanted to take the opportunity to visit Fokker Aerostructures which have been a part of GKN Aerospace since 2015. We were met by Leo Mujis, Senior Manufacturing Engineer and general go-to-guy, who has a long and impressive experience within Fokker. He told about the company and its history and showed us around the production area. Fokker are leaders in manufacturing of empennages for business jets which we also got to see, impressive!

 Not to forget, Kasper and Signe also held a presentation about GKN Aerospace Sweden! Fokker wanted to hear about Engine Systems and what we do, which we more than happily did! They made a poster prior to our visit, look how dashing ;). We also got to meet Tim Jansen, Senior Engineer Specialist Stress, who very kindly had organized for the presentation. Around 30 engineers participated and asked a lot of curious questions. It was very much appreciated to meet colleagues from Fokker we must say!

During this time, Netherlands got an unexpected winter and raised a red alert, which unfortunately meant that we could not meet our graduate colleague Andreas Åhwall, who works at Fokker in Papendrecht at the moment, since he was stuck elsewhere due to a cancelled flight. We had all looked forward to be his guests, but instead had to rent a small holiday house close by. Despite all, fun adventures!

/Lisa

Hello again dear blog!

This is Emelie, from last year’s trainee group (what happened to time, feels like it was yesterday I started and now I am already “last year’s group”?!). I’m doing a little comeback in my blog career, even though the blog is handed over to the new stars of GKN. As you might suspect I am on my international assignment (second month) and I am therefore located in San Diego, California. To be precise I am actually in El Cajon when I write this, about 20 minutes east of San Diego, as this is where our site is (I live in San Diego however).

The site consists of a number of buildings and each has its own products. Ironically enough I am so far mostly involved in the only building where military parts are produced, and I am therefore not allowed to go around in the building however I want. Do I want to go out on the shop floor I have to have someone with me at all times, which becomes a bit frustrating after a while. Soon I will start a project regarding automation in another building – where I can go around on my own! I also spend a lot of time with the Lean team and I get to be a part of different events and classes. Just this Wednesday I was on the first of four days of a Lean course.

It is a different world over here, in so many ways. For starters they keep parts outside here! That is completely impossible at home (as metal, snow, rain and cold is not a very good combination). That works fine over here though (at least for some time) as it seldom rains, snows or is cold. The same goes for me now that I think of it: I spend a lot of my time outdoors here as it is sunny and warm most of the time.

I live in a studio by Mission Beach, approx. 100 meters from the beach. It is sooo nice to be able to just walk outside my door to run along the beach, get some sun at the beach and watch sunsets. I really enjoy it here! During the weekends I try to go to a new hiking spot each week (there are so many around here!) and also see a new part of the city each week. So far it has been amazing! Last weekend I went to LA, but I wasn’t that impressed. I think San Diego is a lot better in every way!

I wish you the best dear readers, and maybe you’ll hear from me again!

//Emelie

Hello again!

In my first blog post I wrote about my time so far at GKN, from thesis work to an employment at RnT and to my position as a graduate today. It has been a fun first time as a graduate where I continue to work on projects within RnT and additive manufacturing (AM). I would very much like to explain what kind of projects I am working on to you readers, but unfortunately it is difficult since I am working with development. GKN of course wants to keep all the good things to themselves! Generally we are constantly exploring which of GKN’s engine components additive manufacturing can be applied to. Many components are based on large and expensive forgings or castings which we then machine to final form. We sometimes machine off closer to 80 % of the raw material which turns in to waste, crazy huh? That makes additive manufacturing a useful method to instead build up material which leads to smaller and cheaper forgings or castings to purchase. We have airplanes that flies today around the world with additive manufacturing applied, which we are proud of. There is after all very high quality demands to meet in order for components to fly, both from us as a company and our costumers but also authorities.

What I can tell you is an especially fun opportunity that I got a few weeks ago. I received an inquiry to speak at an international seminar at Chalmers in Gothenburg. The seminar, Frontiers of Additive Manufacturing, gathered around 200 people from various companies and universities that in one way or another work with additive manufacturing. I shared what GKN Aerospace has developed throughout the years and the things we have flying that is manufactured with AM. It was a great and challenging experience to speak in front of so many, and far more experienced, people than myself! It was the first time on a big stage for me and I must admit that is was a bit thrilling. But it was a lot of fun!

/ Lisa

Words of wisdom for today:
Sometimes one have to do things one do not dare, otherwise one is not human but just some dirt
–          Astrid Lindgren

Hello blog!

My name is Lisa Markusson and this is my first post as an new local graduate engineer here at GKN in Trollhättan. My educational background is Materials Science and Engineering at Luleå University of Technology (LTU) and this is where I heard of GKN Aerospace as a company. Luleå University of Technology and its Department of Materials Science have a long and strong collaboration with GKN in Trollhättan due to their use of exciting and high-performing material like titanium and super alloys. Therefore, by the end of my education I applied to GKN and was given the chance to carry out my thesis work within additive manufacturing (AM) during the fall of 2016. Additive manufacturing is an area which GKN is fully committed to in order to be competitive in present and future businesses, but also for a more effective and environmentally conscious production with less waste of material. Please read more at http://www.gkn.com/en/our-technology/2016/additive-manufacturing/.

During the thesis work I was placed at GKN’s department for process development which foremost operates from Innovatum and its Production Technology Centre (PTC). Innovatum and PTC is a collaboration between industry and academia in order to push production development forward. My work was focused on characterization of powder for the method of direct deposition of the additive, Laser Metal Deposition (LMD), as well as to find a second source supplier of powder for GKN. The work was great in terms of building a good basic understanding for development of AM which also gave me a continued position as an Process Engineer at the company. This has given me a full year of experience at GKN within process development of AM before I started my new position as an Graduate Engineer.

To those readers who are still in the world of academia and thinking of the way forward, I want to say that GKN is an amazing company with cool materials and products, and an exciting business category. Keep a lookout at our website for thrilling thesis works and take the opportunity for an excellent entrance to the company.

My new challenge as an Graduate Engineer will be to broaden my knowledge by rotations at various departments where I will have AM as a common thread. My view on the future is to be a part of the implementation of the process on more products, to continue on what we already have accomplished. Exciting times are to come!

Until next time!
Lisa

*Additive Manufacturing – Collective term for various fabrication techniques whereby material is joined with a layer-on-layer approach to produce a preprogrammed 3D data model.

Hello again readers! I’ve now started the last leg of my rotation, 6 months here in Trollhättan.  I landed in Sweden on September 1^st and went to a traditional Swedish crayfish party on my first day, a perfect start to my stay here!

The first few weeks I’ve been getting orientated to the facility and the local program with the other trainees, as well as learning about what my assignment will be while I’m here.  I’ll be working on a couple initiatives we have involving additive manufacturing (AM).  Both involve the technique called Laser Wire Deposition with wire (LWD-w) where weld wire and a laser is used to deposit material.  The plan is that we utilize this technology at my home site in El Cajon, so I will gain experience by working on the initiatives they have here in Sweden.

My main task is to work on initiatives with titanium casings where we currently use a forging or casting in a weld fabrication.  Instead, we want to research the possibility of using LMD-w to deposit material right onto the piece to avoid welding, saving money and time while also improving quality.

One thing that makes this facility much different than my home facility in El Cajon is the existence of Innovatum, a research facility here in Trollhättan that works in conjunction with the local university (Högskolan Väst) and other local companies.  Innovatum allows GKN to test new processes (like LWD) for production readiness.  In short, you wouldn’t want to invest money in a process unless you knew it was going to work.  Especially when expensive machines are involved!

I look forward to sharing more about what I’m working on here at Trollhättan, and my life in Sweden.  But it’s been a blast so far!

-Nick, American graduate