Mechanical Engineer / Product Designer Intern

About The Business: Small Ceramics designs and manufactures pottery wheels and accessories. We are a small creative team, working to shake up an industry that has not changed much in decades. Because we are a multidisciplinary business, everyone here needs to know a bit of everything to bring our product to life. The upside for you is that you work end to end, taking things from first sketch to finished product rather than owning one narrow slice.

Overview: As part of the Made Smarter internship programme you will help the business carry out a digital transformation in two key areas. The first is improving how we manufacture our current product, through better processes and automation of our print farm. The second is researching in detail how digital manufacturing can help us bring more products to life and solve the current limitations we have encountered via choice of technique, materials.

Job Description:

In this position, you will observe, understand, research, report, implement, and iterate. You have a rare opportunity to drive real transformation in the business, and your schedule will flex around the project: some days will be hands\-on with implementation, others focused on research and reporting. We will shape the objectives around your strengths while meeting what the programme needs. Because many actions take time to execute, you will often be juggling more than one thread of work at once, with a main focus and something to fall back on, so that while we wait, there is always meaningful work to move forward on.

Key duties and tasks:

• Improving current production:Observe and question current processes to build a baseline, research and calculate costs, find ways to reduce waste and write up a plan, and design jigs and fixtures using CAD.


• 3D print farm automation: Trial and test new software solutions against our workflow, report on their strengths, limitations, and costs, and train the team on the chosen software.


• Developing the accessory product: Test our current process to find where it falls short, research how to solve those limitations and what alternative manufacturing methods exist, produce a working prototype internally or externally, and write up recommendations on how to improve our accuracy when manufacturing.


• Manufacturing innovation: Research how to scale our production through digital manufacturing without the price tag of injection moulds, testing new materials to establish the right settings and rules for each, prototyping the wheels in CAD and 3D print, and recommending manufacturing techniques based on your findings.

Desirable Skills:

• BEng or BA graduate, or higher education


• Fusion 360 or equivalent CAD software


• Confident with FDM printing, ideally on Bambu Lab machines


• Familiar with the strengths and limitations of common manufacturing processes: CNC milling, turning, injection moulding and vacuum casting


• Familiar with engineering drawing standards, including limits and fits and geometric tolerancing


• Working knowledge of common engineering materials, enough to know when a part wants ABS over PLA, or aluminium over steel


• Basic understanding of mechanical components such as bearings, gears, DC motors, O\-rings and gaskets


• Able to learn quickly and use your initiative to identify and resolve problems


• Able to build good working relationships and work effectively in a small team


• Strong time management, with the ability to prioritise and take ownership of deadlines


• Strong written and verbal communication skills

Preferred skills:

• Experience working to ISO drawing standards (ISO 286 for limits and fits, ISO 1101 for geometric tolerancing)


• Exposure to sheet metal forming and press or stamp forming


• Some experience of pottery or the ceramics process

IMPORTANT!
This is a 12\-week internship.
This is an on\-site role. Remote and hybrid options are not available.
A portfolio of recent projects is highly recommended, as it helps us get a better sense of your work. We may request one if it is not included with your application.

Pay: £14\.80 per hour

Expected hours: 37\.5 per week

Education:

• Bachelor's (required)

Experience:

• Fusion 360: 1 year (preferred)


• 3D printing: 1 year (preferred)


• CNC: 1 year (preferred)

Work authorisation:

• United Kingdom (required)

Work Location: In person

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