In our sixth edition of our Series of Summer Intern posts, we introduce Austin Bickel, a Mechanical Engineering student at Kansas State University. Austin is from Buhler, KS but currently lives in McPherson. This is Austin's First summer working at Bradbury, but he did spend time with us this winter. Austin has been tasked with working half of his summer in the Assembly Department and the other half in Engineering. He has learned different assembly processes, as well as the engineering applications in assembling machines. Some engineering applications include, reading and interpreting engineering prints, finding the most efficient way to assemble, and learning how to improve the process. During his time in the Engineering Department, Austin has been working on a special concept project. He was tasked with designing both inboard and outboard fixtures to form a return lip on a cee purlin to 90 degrees. Part of the project parameters included the criteria of having four different parts be adjustable using pneumatic cylinders, pin locations, and on a centerline. Austin said "this was an extremely fun project and proved itself challenging in trying to figure out the most practical and most cost effective way to be designed". Gary Janzen, Mechanical Engineering Manager, said "The mechanical engineering internship is designed to give interns a feel for what is involved in a career in engineering. Austin was assigned with the job of designing a roll tooling fixture. Austin has excelled in modeling components along with the required calculation. Austin has a bright future in a career of mechanical engineering."
