Author: adityas115

 

Today was my final day at Pentair. The first half of the day was dedicated to meetings and the other half was dedicated to working on a side project on solid works. The first meeting was cancelled because the other person didn’t show up, so we had some unplanned free time. In this time, Mrs. Rai gave me some Pentair “online classes”. These “classes” were short videos that helped Pentair employees with certain skills. After watching the specific video for the class, you could take a test to demonstrate your understanding. The first class I took was about marketing and it was pretty interesting and I passed the short test! Next, I took a lesson on sensing people’s emotions in the workplace, which was neat. The mini lessons showed that Pentair really wanted their employees on the same page, even though Mrs. Rai told me she hadn’t taken a single lesson.  

 

After this and the next meeting, Mrs. Rai assigned me my final task or side project: to create a batarang in solid works. This task kept me busy for the remainder of the day. It was quite challenging, but I was happy with what I had learned about the software. Halfway through, I stopped for lunch. Because it was my last day, Mrs. Rai took me out to Ruckus, along with a few other employees. After a yummy and chatty lunch, it was back to my side project. I felt quite accomplished once I had finally finished the project.  

Today was a special day, because Mrs. Rai took me down to the Sanford office. This location is where everything is manufactured and where all the engineers work. So, the dynamic of the area is very different. In Sanford, everything and everyone is constantly moving and talking and working. It was a very cool experience to see what a real engineer does on a daily basis. This is where Mrs. Rai used to work before she got promoted, and she knew everyone! Everyone was glad to see her, and they seemed to miss her too. We tagged along with one of Mrs. Rai’s friends named David. David showed us around the entire facility and explained what he was working on. It was a lot of fun because I was learning a lot and drawing a lot connections from my chemistry class too. David was currently working on heating pumps, so he broke down how every piece was made and the entire assembly process for me. I could explain it, but it would take super long and I probably would get some things wrong, so enjoy these pictures I took.

 

 

 

After following David around for a couple hours, I headed into the engineer’s office with Mrs. Rai and we met with all her old engineering buddies. They were glad to hear that I was interested in their field and said it was a lot of fun. They also loved to make fun of Mrs. Rai for leaving. After that, Mrs. Rai and I headed to another part of the factory where we saw some plastic injection machines. This is something I had learned about yesterday, (remember the complex diagrams I talked about?) and it was really neat to see the process in person.  Then, just like that, it was time for lunch and time to leave Sanford ;( We ate sandwich place in Sanford and then headed back to the Cary office.  

We arrived in Cary at about 1:45, only to see Mrs. Rai’s computer was off limits because it was updating a new software. The update was supposed to take up to an hour, so we had some free time on our hands. The free time went by quickly, and it was time for two back to back meetings to end out the day, for me. For the first meeting, Mrs. Rai was just monitoring and listening in, so there wasn’t much contribution from our side of the call. The second meeting didn’t happen because one of the other members was unable to make it! And, just like that, it was 4 and my day was done! 

After an enjoyable 3-day weekend, it was time to head back to the office today. The day consisted mostly of meetings and learning another step in the engineering process. At 10:00, Mrs. Rai and I headed to the Arctic Ocean for the first meeting of the day. Ironically, this conference room was warmer than the rest of the building. This meeting was a weekly check in with one of Mrs. Rai’s design engineers who works from Texas. She reported to Mrs. Rai what she had been up to for the past week and they discussed future plans. After the meeting, we headed back to the cubicle where Mrs. Rai printed out three long sheets of paper, with drawings and lines and numbers and other confusing things. She told me to try to dissect as much as I could, and after about 5 minutes, I was lost. She then explained that this is the document that engineers send suppliers, the people who will actually make the product. She further explained that most suppliers will require two types of outlines or drawings: machining and casting. The casting is the overall shape of the product, and the measurements don’t have to be too accurate. The supplier uses the casting outline to create a ‘rough draft’ of the product. When they want to fine tune this, they look to the ‘machining’ outline. This is much more specific, with measurements going to the thousands of an inch! After all of the explaining, I think I finally understood everything that was on the originally confusing pages. It was pretty neat to see the drawings and plus I felt really legit holding the large pieces of paper that contained such complex images. After this fun learning experience, it was lunch and then the second meeting of the day. 

This meeting was one of the longer ones I have joined, lasting for around an hour. There were four people on the call, two from Florida and one from Canada. This meeting was to discuss of of Mrs. Rai’s side projects, a tracker pro. I don’t know too much about the product, but judging from the meeting, it was not ready for sale. The meeting seemed to be all over the place, but I think Mrs. Rai did a great job of keeping everyone focused on the subject at hand. After this lengthy meeting, both Mrs. Rai and I were quite tired, so she decided to take a break and show me something interesting in the break room. All of the filtering equipment on the floor was made by Pentair, obviously, which meant that they had some really tricked out faucets. One of the sinks would release carbonated water, and on the side of the sink were different flavors that could be added to this special water. So, I spent the next 20 minutes exploring and mixing and drinking the flavored water. They were all pretty good, but now my stomach kind of hurts, but it was worth it! 

The first of half of the day at Pentair consisted of mostly meetings. The first meeting was between Mrs. Rai and one of her project members down in Florida. The meeting was held in the arctic ocean.. Brr.  This was a weekly meeting where the two would discuss weekly progress and problems. Mrs. Rai explained the more they talked, the more problems they would find, therefore she liked to keep the meetings short 🙂 In between the first and second meeting Mrs. Rai had me read the PCO or product change order. This was a lengthy document, which Mrs. Rai said would definitely put me to sleep, but said it was a document that every Pentair employee had read once, almost like a rite of passage . Thankfully, I didn’t dose of, but I really didn’t understand too much of the form. The form was basically explaining the process that an employee had to take in order to change a key aspect of a product. The process was long and thorough, nothing slips through the cracks at Pentair! After this lengthy read, we headed into the next meeting of the day, which was in the Indian Ocean! This meeting was similar to the last, in that both were weekly checkups. However, meeting number 2 consisted of a lot more people, the whole team, from Florida, Samford, and here. Mrs. Rai warned me that these meetings can sometimes get choppy with arguments and bickering, but thankfully this one stayed pretty clean. The team followed a similar schedule as the first meeting: checkups and problems. There were definitely more problems with this project than the last, which was unfortunate, but expected. After these two lengthy meetings and the reading, I was pretty tired and ready for some lunch.

 

After lunch, Mrs. Rai and I crossed the hallway to another cubicle of a lady who worked in finance. She helped Mrs. Rai with her budget request, making sure everything was in check, before Mrs. Rai sent in the corporate office in Minnesota. After that quick meeting, Ms. Eason showed up! It was great to see a familiar face! After that short meeting, phew lot of meetings today, it was time to resume my side project with the Geneva Mechanism. Today was step 3: running the simulation. It was frustrating but after many attempts, it finally worked! The project was a success and I was quite proud of the accomplishment, even though I couldn’t have done it without some help.

 

Today I arrived at Pentair at 9:00am, a little later then yesterday. I felt like a true employee, using my keycard to enter the building. Today was an especially interesting day at the office, as it was “closing day”. “Closing Day” is at the end of every month, where every employee has a lot of work due. The office was quieter in the morning and as people began to finish up their month’s work, the office was filled with chatter. I got to meet a few interesting people, most of whom worked in finance. We talked about a wide variety of things and I even got some advice on what classes I should take in college.

 

When I wasn’t chatting with the recently freed employees, I had some other tasks given to me by Dr. Rai. First I read over a bunch of documents, to help me understand the project Dr. Rai was working on. I read the manuals of the fish pump, both the 6 inch and 8 inch models. Dr. Rai pointed out an interesting line in one of the manuals that was put in as a little companywide joke, I can’t remember exactly what it said, but basically it explained the company warranty does not protect against any “acts of god”. Ha ha, I can’t believe that made it in there.

 

After the reading, I went back to work on my Geneva mechanism project. The project was broken into three main steps. The first, which I did the majority of yesterday, was designing and creating each individual piece.  The second step was to bring all the pieces together in assembly, which I did today. I learned more about the software, solid works, and how helpful it is. It was not easy, but I think I can getting better and better as the days have gone on. The final step, which I hope to complete tomorrow it to actually run the mechanism, with an add in called “simulation”. Unfortunately, I forgot to save the new assembly file before lunch, and lost my progress for step 2. I was a little bummed at first, but then I realized it would be good practice for me to put it back together. And sure enough I was able to put the pieces back together in record time! (for me) After I finished step 2, I had some time left over and I was able to mess around with the colors of my creation and decide to go with the classic gold and blue. Right about now would be great time for me to add in a picture of that, but I forgot to take one. Oh well, tomorrow maybe.

 

Day two began with a meeting in the “Pacific Ocean” conference room. This was a huge meeting for Dr. Rai, as she was presenting her current project, in front the heads of Pentair, in order for some funding. There were several high-ranking members present for the meeting, through call, and Dr. Rai did a great job! The conference call had people from all across the nation. It was exciting to see how the high-ranking members would poke and prod at the protentional projects, and how the presenters would stand by their ideas. It was also neat to see that Pentair also uses Lync, just like CA, and they also had the same fears as we do. What if someone lync’s me during my presentation??I  After the conference meeting, Dr. Rai and I headed back to her work space and began talking about what was next for me. Because I can’t legally aid any actual business at Pentair, Dr. Rai has given me a side project to work. Building on my exploration of solid works from yesterday, she has tasked me with creating a “Geneva Mechanism”, which is unique gear which turns intermittently, it will rotate, then stop, then rotate automatically, pretty neat.  This type of mechanism is used in watches and other objects that require a motor, but not constantly.

After explaining my project, Dr. Rai walked me through the Pentair project process and how my process should mirror theirs. The process is longer than I expected, but thorough and seems to be quite effective. For me, I began by figuring out the dimensions of my product. Before I could start my project, I joined Dr. Rai in her meeting with some of her project team members down in Florida. The meeting was shorter than the one in the morning and was just a weekly check-up on operations.  Next, I began to create the mechanism in solid works. I learned more skills on the software and it became even more complex than yesterday. I did notice, however, that I was starting to understand the basics of the software and was getting quicker and quicker. In the time left in the day, I was able to create 3 of the key pieces necessary for the mechanism, progress I am quite proud of!

Pentair Day One.

Today was my first day at Pentair. When I first arrived, I was toured around the offices and got my own visitors badge, which I would use to enter in and out the building for the next two weeks. After the “tour”, I sat down with Dr. Rai and the day began. First, she explained what her job is, what Pentair is in general and then the specific project she is working on right now. Pentair is an aquatic engineering company that deals with anything from monitoring water levels to creating water pumps. Dr. Rai’s current project is focusing on a fish pump, that can safely transport fish. She let me read her recent presentation on the project, the one she pitched to the company for approval. I realized that Pentair is quite a dominant company in its respective field! After this was it was already time for lunch, where I ate my food and explored the large vending machine found on the lower floor of the building, safe to say it blows the SEA vending machines out of the water. After lunch, Dr. Rai set me up with a  program called solid works. She explained that this was a software that most engineers of the company used. The software is meant to prototype parts and pieces and is connected to a 3-D printer. It is similar to sketch-up, but a lot more complex! After getting a quick tutorial I was tasked with creating a specific piece. It was definitely a challenging journey, but I felt a great sense of accomplishment once I finished! After this Dr. Rai and I discussed our plans for the week and then just like that it was the end of the day!