Research internship I Case design tooling

Research internship in Case Design Tooling at VMI

Introduction

On the VMI website you can read: “VMI Tire is the leading supplier of technology for the manufacture of superior radial passenger vehicle, light truck, all-steel truck and bus tires. With a vast, in-depth knowledge of the market, VMI has pioneered numerous new technologies that have led the way in single stage tire building.”

Traditionally, the tire building process is very labour intensive and VMI is leading the way towards fully automated machines, meaning “hands-off, eyes-off”. The machine not only produces the product, but it also checks the end result. The eyes of the operator are replaced by vision systems that have to be very precise: material tolerances usually are in tenths of millimeters, so the accuracy of the measurement needs to be much better than that.

Department

This research internship will be guided by two departments: Order Engineering and Customer Service. Order Engineering is working with multiple engineering project teams on customer requests whereas Customer Service is involved afterwards.

What are you going to do?

The vision systems have to be calibrated and validated to make sure that no faulty tires are going to the market, and no good tires are being scrapped. These calibration/validation tools (cal/val) need to be very precise and should be handled with care, like measurement tools. Therefore, it is standard procedure to design a flightcase for every tool, or set of tools, for protection during shipment and storage.

The problem is that it’s proven to be impossible to always have an (expensive) flightcase with the tool. The goal is to investigate how VMI can make sure that every cal/val tool will be shipped with a protective case, not being a flightcase.

• Make an overview of all the cal/val tools that are used now, and the ones that are in design to be used in the near future: shape, size, weight etc.
• Investigate / collect design requirements for packing of cal/val tools
• Select suitable packing material and design some universal cases that cover the full range of cal/val tools, to provide a low cost alternative to flight cases.
• Validate the solutions

Flightcases are expensive, but should last the lifetime of the tool. The low cost alternative that we are looking for must last multiple shipments, because the tools often have to be sent to a calibration lab before shipment to the customer.

At the end of the internship, we will have a complete list of cal/val tooling with an alternative packaging that has been validated on the requirements collected during the assignment.

Who are you?

You are a real investigator and are not afraid to explore externally and internally. You can communicate easily with different stakeholders within the company. This assignment also requests a creative mindset to search for solutions which are significantly cheaper. Furthermore:

• You are a HBO 3rd year student with an education in technical business management/administration or mechanical engineering.
• You are willing to work on this project from start to finish (investigating, design, implementation and if possible testing).

What do we offer?

We give you the opportunity to join an open and friendly team for six months. You will have the opportunity to carry out challenging research in which you can add real value to the organization. For this internship you will receive an internship allowance that you can expect from a leading company and a travel allowance.

In addition to our own internship program, you will have the opportunity to participate in a Master Class at Perron038.

These Masterclasses are organized each time by different companies and relate to soft skills, but can for example also be about LinkedIn, project management and job application tips.

VMI is one of the partners at innovation center Perron038 in Zwolle. Various technical companies work together here in the field of Technology and they share knowledge and experiences with each other in an inspiring environment. At the training sessions & Tuesday afternoon drinks at Perron038 you will also meet students from the other companies in the region.

What will your internship bring VMI?

When cal/val tooling is being sold with new machines, the flightcase will still be the preferred option, but in after sales and special occasions it’s good to have a ‘low cost alternative’ to avoid discussions with customers about value (no damage) vs. costs (of the packaging).