Q&A: Fastems Intern Ayden Hauck

Hirsh Precision has a long-standing relationship with the Career Elevation Technology Center (CETC), an organization within the St. Vrain Valley School District that supports students with engaging, hands-on training for high-paying, high-growth careers in fields like advanced manufacturing, automotive technology, welding, and fabrication technology.

Last September, Ayden Hauck was introduced to our team as an advanced manufacturing student who was very interested in joining the Hirsh Precision team and gaining hands-on experience with manufacturing complex, precision components.

Ayden has been a critical member of our team for over a year and has approached manufacturing with curiosity and diligence. He has been an incredible student of the industry and will continue to be so through secondary education and later as an aerospace engineer. Below are his reflections on his internship experience with the Hirsh Precision team.

Over the last year, I have worked as an intern, part-time employee, and now a full-time employee for the company Hirsh Precision Products, a precision machining and manufacturing company dedicated to making the best product possible for their customers in the medical, aerospace, and biomedical fields. This company has helped me in so many ways, which include benefiting my present self and my future self.

Ayden Hauck, Fastems Intern

How did your internship at Hirsh begin?

When I was first starting my internship, I was put immediately onto the floor where I started operating CNC mills. The particular cell I was in had a system operating it called Fastems FPC. This system would allow for the four CNC mills attached to it to run semi-automatically year-round. With my foundational knowledge of CNC mills from a class I took, the transition to running this system was smooth, and with the help of the amazing community at Hirsh, I started to learn and develop even more.

In addition to the FPC system, Hirsh has another Fastems system that runs different parts. This Fastems system truly lives up to the goal of running year-round, with its machines running day in and day out, only getting breaks over the weekend. When I worked here, I got a glimpse at all the different kinds of parts that Hirsh makes and the different kinds of fixtures that are possible to implement.

How did your internship progress and develop?

After about three months of working on the Fastems system, I started to help with a process called grit blasting, which is included in the deburring department. In this process, we take castings and blast them with a fine grit to take away the shine on the casting part. Working this machine helped me to better understand the process that some parts had to go through when they arrived at Hirsh. Another cool aspect of this job was that a lot of the parts I was grit blasting went onto the Fastems system I had already worked at, which only furthered my understanding of the different processes that some parts go through in their production.

Once I more thoroughly understood the grit blasting process, I was moved to operate a CNC lathe. Again, with the help of my foundational knowledge of lathes, it was pretty easy to understand what I was doing when mounting the parts on the fixture, and what the machine was doing to the part. It was such a key learning experience for me because it showed me another way that parts can be made and the types of technology that has been developed to produce complex parts.

In addition to the Fastems system and lathes, what other machines have you been working on?

For about the last 6-8 months, I have been working on different types of single-machine CNC mills. Unlike the Fastems system, these mills weren’t connected and only ran one type of part at a time. This type of production allowed me to focus more on the technical aspects of machining a part, rather than the importance of automation and production efficiency like the Fastems system did. In this environment, I learned more about the controls of the mills and about different aspects to the tools that cut the parts. Things like tool life, tool wear, chip-removal and other information about the tools became vital to understand in order to make the parts to the best of my ability. And on a broader scale, these pieces of information started to build my foundation of precision and tool control.

And lastly, while I ran the single-machine mills, I got the opportunity to help the packaging and shipping department. I think the most beneficial aspect of working here was the opportunity to see what our end products looked like, and how products looked after coming back from a process at a different company. This type of interconnected look at the parts I had made, others had made, and then their departure to the customer really tied together how important each step in the process of making a part is. From acquiring the raw material to shipping out the end product safely and securely, each process is vital in getting the customer the part they desire.

What’s the most important thing you learned during your internship?

My time here at Hirsh has led to my understanding of machining to deepen to an incredible level in such a short amount of time. My background knowledge of machining will also be such a huge boost in my journey to becoming an aerospace engineer as well; there truly isn’t a substitute for gaining firsthand experience and I don’t think I could’ve found a better place than Hirsh Precision.