Outstanding opportunity for a Manufacturing Engineer internship with a locally based global company!
Paid internship: $22.00/hour
Hours per week: 16 (more at times, if school schedule permits)
Schedule: flexible
Program duration: June 2024 – May 2025 (or as agreed upon start)
Location: Placentia (less than 2 miles from Cal State Fullerton)
Arlon Graphics, LLC is a cast vinyl manufacturing company in the business of creating innovative material for visual expression. Founded in 1958, Arlon Graphics manufactures and markets high-quality pressure-sensitive materials for the fleet, architectural, digital imaging, and signage markets. Through more than 180 distribution partners across the globe, a growing number of strategically positioned sales offices and warehouses, and customer-centric operations, Arlon is recognized as a global leader in graphic films.
Position Outline:
Learn all elements of a manufacturing operation from the ground up. Work in several production department to understand production and work with our existing team, you will also work in logistics to understand the flow of material in the building up to the product shipping directly to our customers. Then you will evolve to more technical and project work under the instruction of an Arlon engineer. This will include product performance testing to qualify new production machinery, supporting process efficiency improvement, verifying layout/equipment drawings, and improving process controls.
Months 1 – 6: Rotation through one or more of our four production departments and logistics
Work on the various production lines manufacturing Arlon products – exposure to manufacturing equipment in one or more of our Compounding, Casting, Coating, and Converting departments. This will give you understanding of equipment, working as part of a team, the production process, tracking and monitoring, attending production meetings.
Department - Compounding:
- Mix organosol and adhesives for use in casting and coating.
- Follow written Q.S.P’s (Quality System Procedures) and S.O.P’s (Standard Operating Procedures) that apply to the Job Requirement.
- Use manual and digital scales and common measuring devices to weigh materials such as pigments, plasticizers, stabilizers, polyvinylchloride, DIBK and xylene.
- Handling Hazardous Waste and following procedures.
- Operate and maintain 3 Roll Milling Equipment.
- Filter organosol for impurities using Pump and Canister Filtration Equipment.
- Transport material into and out of the work area.
- Clean pumps, tanks and other equipment used in the Compounding Processes.
Department - Converting:
- Convert work-in-progress rolls into finished good rolls according to process orders, quality specifications, and process specifications.
- Validate cleanliness and effectiveness of converting blades and machine prior to running material.
- Inspect material for defects. If defective material is found, identify the appropriate re-work requirement, or scrap the defective material.
- Perform accurate issues, receipt, and scrap transactions while preserving batch traceability.
- Package finished good rolls with the appropriate packaging material.
- Label all rolls with the correct core and box label.
- Maintain a clean working environment, 5S.
Department - Casting:
- Cast organosol to liner as instructed by Lead Operator
- Set-up materials (liner, organosol) and machine parameters (tension, gap, pressure, etc.).
- Set counters and record material used and scrapped.
- Monitor operation for proper casting and/or curing, check for material defects, make equipment adjustments as necessary to maintain quality, notify Quality department of questionable material.
- Unload roll from machine and move to appropriate area.
- Perform quality testing (physical properties, color, gloss, etc.)
- Prepare production records and inventory tags then return excess stock to storage and enter location data into the computer system.
- Clean and set up wet-end equipment (coating head, pumps, and filters).
- Record and input data into a database system.
Department – Coating:
- Coat adhesive to liner and/or laminate coated liner to vinyl as instructed by Lead Operator
- Set-up materials (liner, adhesive, vinyl) and machine parameters (tension, gap, pressure, etc.)
- Monitor operation for proper coating, checking for material defects, make equipment adjustments as necessary to maintain quality, notify Quality department of questionable material.
- Load and align raw material rolls on unwind shaft and thread through rollers according to S.O.P.
- Unload roll from machine and move to appropriate area.
- Perform quality testing (Adhesion, release, viscosity, etc.)
- Perform roll-to-roll splices using splicing equipment (accumulators, turrets, sensors, etc)
- Setup and clean up in-line printer and wet-end equipment (coating head, pumps, filters, etc) .
- Operate the wet end control panel.
- Follow safety rules and keep work area in a clean and orderly condition.
- Operate forklift and hoist while following safety procedures (we will fully train if required).
Department - Logistics:
- Sort and place materials or items on racks, shelves, or in bins according to predetermined sequence such as size, type, style, color or assigned locations.
- Pick and assembles customer orders from stock, accurately against picking tickets using an RF Scanner.
- Load picked rolls onto pallets or convey to the shipping department.
- Must use banding machine to safely secure the load for transit.
- Use RF Barcode Scanner and workstation to make inventory transactions. Can validate reports and correct picking errors for 100% accuracy before shipment.
- Operate the stretch wrap machine.
- Marks all pallets with identifying information per Manual Work Instructions (MWI).
Month 1 – 6: Project Support Opportunities (elements below may be included in first 6 months)
- Manufacturing Quality testing. Benefit: Quality knowledge and insight into test methods / products.
- Supporting Engineers supporting projects – qualification projects to support capacity needs, line speed increases.
- Identify and report out on opportunities for efficiency and ergonomic improvements.
- Work with supervisors to develop OJT / quick start work instructions for production.
- Support production and product quality testing for new equipment/processes.
- New specification qualifications in Casting.
Months 7 – 9: Project Leadership
- Each intern will have the opportunity to lead whole or parts of the following projects:
- Plan and lead Gage R&R studies.
- Color match and tint strength optimization in Compounding.
- Lead a project to decrease setup times by proposing process improvements.
- Lead product performance testing for qualifying new equipment, products, or processes.
- Create and modify CAD drawings for existing equipment.
Person Description:
- Hungry to learn, curious and thorough.
- Attention to detail, highly computer literate in MS Office ®
- Mini-Tab and CAD skills helpful/preferred
- Flexible and adaptable to respond to company requirements.
Additional Job Requirements:
- Follow safety rules and keep work area in a clean and orderly condition.
- Handling hazardous waste and following procedures.
- All hazardous and flammable material must follow OSHA requirement.
Pay Transparency
The current pay rate for this position is between $22.00 per hour. Rate of pay will depend on factors such as market conditions and location, job-related knowledge and skills, education, training and experience. If hired, employment will be at will. The Company reserves the right to modify pay, as well as any other discretionary payment or compensation program, at any time. EOE
EEO Statement
Arlon is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sex, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other protected status in accordance with all applicable laws. (PM18)
