For 2018 Tomorrow’s Engineers week we had a guest from the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) to find out what it is like to be an engineer at Direct Air & Pipework and in the compressed air industry.
Introducing Lottie!
Monday
On her first day, Lottie was inducted at our Coventry headquarters and was shown the ropes in our warehouse. A major part of this is health and safety and providing Lottie with her personal protective equipment (PPE) including safety helmet, gloves, eye protection, high-visibility clothing and safety footwear.
All of our new apprentices are encouraged to spend time familiarising themselves with the variety of different compressed air equipment they will be working on out in the field, including compressors, dryers, filters, air receivers and condensate drains.
Lottie quickly understood that maintenance engineering also plays a key role in the manufacturing process, as if you don’t look after equipment it can quickly become broken. Every engineer plays a role!
Tuesday
After being paired up with Tom in our installation team, Lottie had an introduction to pipework. Today Lottie was helping the tea carry out a pipework diversion for an automotive manufacturer.
The team work with a variety of different materials such as aluminium, galvanised steel and plastic, and in different conditions including outside, up on scissor-lift or in a compressor room. It was a chilly day outside, but the work was vital to the manufacturer, so our team worked hard to get the job done - brrrr!
Wednesday
It was time to hit the road! Being a service engineer is not an office-based role and gave Lottie a fantastic opportunity to get out and about to meet our customers.
We didn’t have a Lottie sized van available on the day, so she belted up with JT for a day of air quality testing.
On the way back to the office, Lottie answered a call from the office asking them to pop over to a customer with a broken-down compressor. They were able to assess the problem and organise for another engineer to bring over the spare parts to fix the problem.
Thursday
Everyday something different happens and today was a day spent in the workshop. The air end for this L11 compressor needed replacing. Lottie received training directly from the compressor manufacture so had the best knowledge available and access to genuine spares.
Friday
Lottie took a look at a different side of the business today with our project engineers. Our projects department work on many turnkey installations and design bespoke systems using the latest CADCAM design.
The team showed Lottie their engineering drawings as well as 2D and 3D design software. After seeing a compressed air installation in person earlier in the week, it was very impressive to see the design start on Andy’s software.
About #LottieTour
WES organises #LottieTour to show how varied and exciting it is to work in engineering. The aim of this project is to use a STEM inspired doll to engage primary age girls in engineering and STEM more generally. Primary age students are often neglected when outreach activities are planned, and WES believes this should change, as this is a great time to get girls excited about science and engineering!
Direct Air are delighted to support WES in this year’s campaign and if you’d like to find out more, visit the WES website.