Student Placement in Polymer Engineering

Conan McLaren, an SPRA student member and winner of an SPRA Scholarship, asked the SPRA to help find a six month placement before he entered the Honours year of the BEng (Hons) Polymer Engineering Programme at Edinburgh Napier University.  Peter Warren, an SPRA Member and Head of Materials Engineering at James Walker & Co in Cockermouth, Cumbria, kindly set up a placement for Conan.  Below is Conan’s account of his experiences.

 

I was a Polymer Engineering student at Edinburgh Napier University where one of my modules required me to gain some experience in industry. With help from the SPRA Honorary Secretary, Dr Charlie Geddes, I got in touch with a company called James Walker & Co based in Cockermouth, Cumbria who offered me a paid summer placement.  James Walker & Co are specialists in fluid sealing technology, with customers all over the world in oil and gas, automotive, wind power, pharmaceutical etc industries.

 As a polymer engineering student I was given the best possible placement where I managed to get real experience in almost every form of polymer processing including transfer moulding, injection moulding, compression moulding, extrusion and even milling some rubber!  Furthermore, James Walker manufacture the majority of their own moulds and produce many of their own grades of rubber material. This ensured that my placement gave me a great deal of experience in a variety of tasks. For example

one day I could be working with tool makers on new moulds, testing new and existing grades of material in the materials lab or conducting shrinkage trials of varying moulds at varying temperatures. As well as all this great practical experience, I was given a project working with the team who develop products for the pharmaceutical industry to try and improve productivity in one of its processes.

 All in all, I recommend any student to undertake a placement in industry. The experience you gain makes you become a much more confident engineer and you realise how useful all the studying you have done is. This was particularly useful when you are a polymer engineering student as you realise how few people (in comparison with many other engineering disciplines) there are who have the knowledge of polymers and their associated manufacturing processes . While you are on a placement you are supported and encouraged to try your ideas and it is most satisfying when work you are doing is actually seen as beneficial to the company.

 

Conan McLaren                                         March 2011