Elkhorn,
field trips,
Gateway Technical College,
Haas Factory Outlet,
Illinois,
iMET Center,
internship,
Kurt Busch's Haas NASCAR #41,
MacLean Fogg,
Precision Plus,
Scot Forge,
students back to school,
Summer Interns,
tours,
Wisconsin
Michael Reader
The second year of Precision Plus’ Summer Internship Programs comes to an end, as the 18 interns head back to their respective high schools (East Troy, Badger, Elkhorn Area, Richmond and Wilmot) and colleges (U.W. Madison, U.W. Platteville, Milwaukee School of Engineering).
Although the internship program includes classroom time, the students spent most of their time on the floor, observing and learning from seasoned professionals and putting their new knowledge to work—hands-on.
Featured below are a few of Precision Plus summer interns in action.
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The end of the summer internship program was highlighted by field trips to several area manufacturing facilities as well as to the new iMET Center.
On August 8, 2014, the students and Precision Plus’ Director of Education and Training Barry Butters toured the iMET (SC Johnson Integrated Manufacturing and Engineering Technology) Center– within Gateway Technical College– located in Sturtevant, WI . The iMET Center is a state of the art training facility. It also houses a FAB lab. “Fab labs are a global network of local labs, enabling invention by providing access for individuals to tools for digital fabrication, to make almost anything.” The students found the 3D scanner and 3D printers of particular interest.
On August 13, 2014, a trip was coordinated to visit the Haas Factory Outlet Open House, located in Brookfield, Wisconsin.
The students saw the latest generation of Haas machines. Of particular interest were the vertical mills, as Precision Plus does not use this type of machine. The students were amazed at how fast the mill could change tools. Haas has worldwide reputation as a technology leader in CNC machining.
The students also enjoyed seeing Kurt Busch’s Haas NASCAR #41 up close prior to performing in the Sprint Cup race at Chicagoland Speedway on September 14 following IMTS 2014.
On August 22, 2014, the interns were given a tour of MacLean-Fogg in Whitewater, WI by Randy Race, Director of Engineering. The company was founded in 2012 by merging two successful and complementary plastic injection molding businesses: Engineered Plastics Corp. in Menomonee Falls, WI and MacLean-Fogg’s Polymer Technologies in Whitewater. Their experience in practical plastics design, tooling, processing, and engineered materials is extensive and it is well known throughout the world.
The students learned all about plastic injection molding machines and about how automation has been a key player in the running of these machines.
But the field trip that left most interns awe-struck was the Spring Grove, IL tour of the Scot Forge facility. The tour was arranged through Zach Ford who is Scot Forge’s Technical Education Liaison. While at Precision Plus, we sometimes have to use tweezers to hold our parts to measure them, Scot Forge manufactures things that have to be crawled inside of to measure. The sheer size difference was amazing to the students, and it gave them a much wider understanding of the variables in manufacturing.
We wish all of our interns success in their studies, and look forward to keeping up with their achievements. In college, or college bound are:
- Michael Reader MSOE (Jr.) and 4-year summer intern
- Carson Filko MSOE (Fr) and 3-year summer intern
- Britt Campbell MSOE (Fr.) 1-year Youth Apprentice/summer intern
- Hunter Parks MSOE (Fr.), 1-year Youth Apprentice/summer intern
- Riley Bruce MSOE (Fr.) 1-year summer intern
- Kyle Poplar MSOE (Sr.) 1-year summer intern
- Jon Stopple, UW-Platteville (So.) 2nd year intern
- Bob Dall, UW-Madison (So.) 2nd year intern
- Brad Killen, UW-Madison (So.) 2nd year intern
- Jake Ruemmele UW Platteville (Jr.) 1st year intern
