Mechanical Engineering Internship: Influence of Dynamic Conditions on Bolted Plastic Parts

Be part of progress

The Mechanical Development department at ASML designs and optimizes high-precision modules that enable the world’s most advanced lithography systems. Within this team, we are investigating how dynamic conditions affect the preload of bolted plastic parts, an essential factor in ensuring mechanical reliability. Bolts may seem simple, but they are critical in maintaining structural integrity, especially in fast-moving positioning modules. This internship focuses on understanding how small bolts behave under dynamic loads, particularly when clamping plastic components. Your work will help prevent failures and improve long-term performance in ASML systems.

Your assignment

In this graduation internship, you will explore how dynamic forces influence the pretension of bolted plastic parts. Understanding their behavior under stress is key to improving reliability. You will design and test a solution that measures and analyzes bolt performance under both static and dynamic conditions.

Main responsibilities:

• Research mechanical design requirements and conduct a literature review on current technologies.
• Develop a conceptual design for a load cell to measure bolt pretension loss.
• Build models for dynamic analysis and optimize the design.
• Create detailed mechanical designs and assess potential risks.
• Conduct static and dynamic tests using your designed load cell.
• Analyze test data and interpret results.
• Document your findings and present conclusions.

Your profile

• You are pursuing a master’s degree in mechanical engineering, mechatronics, or applied physics.
• You have experience with precision mechanics and understand how materials respond to mechanical loads (e.g., creep, yield).
• You are familiar with CAD modeling and simulation tools such as FEM (e.g., Ansys, Comsol, Abaqus).
• Preferably, you are familiar with MATLAB for data analysis and modeling.
• You communicate effectively in English and have basic scientific writing and presentation skills.

This is a bachelor/master (thesis) internship for a minimum of 6 months, for 4-5 days per week (with at least 3 days on-site). The start date of this internship is as of February 2026, but is flexible.

Other requirements you need to meet:

• You are enrolled at an educational institute for the entire duration of the internship.
• Attach your cover letter with a clear motivation explaining why you are interested in this internship assignment in particular.
• You need to be located in the Netherlands to perform your internship. If you are currently living or studying outside of the Netherlands, your CV/motivation letter should include your willingness to relocate.
• If you are a non-EU citizen studying in the Netherlands, your university must be willing to sign the documents relevant for doing an internship (i.e., Nuffic agreement).

About ASML

ASML is a leading supplier of lithography equipment, used by the world’s top chipmakers to print microchips that are increasingly powerful, fast, and energy efficient. Working at ASML is inspiring, no matter what field you're in. That’s because we push the boundaries of technology: if it’s moving the world forward, chances are, we’re behind it. In fact, we’re probably a part of the electronic device you’re using right now.

We’re a global team of more than 32,000 people from 122 different nationalities and counting. Headquartered in Europe’s top tech hub, the Brainport Eindhoven region in the Netherlands, our operations are spread across Europe, Asia, and the US.