PEOPLE PROFILE:
FARRAT INTERN, DANIELLA EDWARDS-DAVIES
Areas Of Expertise: Engineering, Business, Geography
Education: Secondary School
Time at Farrat: One week work experience during July, 2019
Tell us a bit about yourself?
I come from Ashton on Mersey in Sale and I am in Year Ten at secondary school, studying Geography, Spanish, Business and Engineering. I am interning at Farrat this summer as part of my School Work Experience.
I chose to do my work experience at an engineering firm like Farrat, as engineering is one of the options I chose to study and I wanted to find out what a career in engineering would be like!
Tell us about your work experience week interning at Farrat?
On my first day, Ginette, an Account Development Specialist for Thermal Breaks, showed me how to talk with customers and input important information into the CRM system, which was really interesting.
After that on Tuesday, I met Adriana who is an Applications Engineer. Adriana introduced me to the Engineering & Design department of Farrat. I was shown some detailed design drawings and was even given a chance to use the design program, AutoCAD. I ended up spending the whole day with Adriana which really opened my eyes to the type of solutions that can be created when you put your mind to it.
On Wednesday I moved over to the Drafting Office and began working with Yohann and Phil, who are both design engineers. I learnt a lot about technical drawing and was challenged to design my own product, a smartphone holder. This involved picking a suitable design then working with Phil to input the design into the SolidWorks program to prepare it for manufacture.
To prepare the design, I had to note all of the dimensions so that manufacturing would know the exact size and some other important details. I then checked to ensure there were no holes where there should not be and that there was a section to place the device onto, to keep the iPhone or iPad stable.
Once the design was finished, I sent design-sheets to the manufacturing department so that my ‘product’ could be precision-cut on the Waterjet. I then watched it being made down in the factory with the manufacturing team, which was something I have never seen before (and it took only about five minutes!).
During my time in the drafting office, Yohann also showed me the various isolation solutions that Farrat develop. He showed me some of the 2D and 3D designs of solutions that Farrat use to isolate cinemas from external sound and other vibrations or disturbances. It was great!
Yohann also explained the function of each of the machines in the on-site R&D lab and explained how Farrat test various materials and products. As part of this, I was able to ‘squish’ a rubber component and watch how it reacted under the pressure – that was really fun!
To end the week, I spent some time with Charlene in Marketing who explained the role of communications and helped me to produce a piece of editorial that I then published on the Farrat website.
You have experienced a variety of interesting roles at Farrat, but which was your favorite?
I really enjoyed the design and manufacturing segments of the week.
Designing and then manufacturing my own phone stand was really fun and taught me each of the steps involved in product development. This is something that I want to do in the future and my time at Farrat has helped to reinforce that ambition.
What are the next steps for you after Farrat?
Next week I am going to present to my Year Ten Class an assessment of my work experience at Farrat. This will cover what I did, everything that I learnt and how I am going to use that in the future.
After Year Ten, I will see whether my school offers engineering in 6th form. If not, I will look to study this further elsewhere, perhaps at college.
Fantastic! Gareth, our Production Manager, has said that you would make a fine Design Engineer. We hope we have given you a great experience and an insight into Engineering.
Thank you for letting me do my work experience at Farrat. You have all made me feel so welcome and I could not have asked for a better group of people to work with.
I really appreciate it and have thoroughly enjoyed it.
I will miss you all!
Daniella has been an absolutely brilliant Intern at Farrat this summer – attitude, demeanor and work ethic are all exceptional and we have no doubt that she will excel in whatever career she decides to pursue.
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