Michael Hagan at Cummins Inc.

Michael Hagan graduated from Trinity H. S, a small parochial school in Whitesville, KY, in spring '04 and attended Owensboro Community College before coming to UK in fall '05. This is a description of his summer experience with Cummins Inc. The photo was captured after conducting thermal imaging analysis for the 19 liter engine in an engine test cell in Charleston , SC. When the engine was running, safety glasses and hearing protection were needed in the test cell. It was determined that certain components on the engine reached temperatures in excess of 800 degrees F.

"Being in the Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering program at the University of Kentucky , I never thought I would be in the position to work with marine vessels. Working with Cummins Inc. for the summer of 2007 has proved that possibilities are endless in the engineering program at UK . Working in an internship for the three months at Cummins, I have already gained experience and knowledge about the workforce that cannot be taught in the classroom.

My summer job was located in Columbus , Indiana , at the world headquarters of Cummins Inc. Cummins produces engines and related technologies, including filtration, fuel systems, controls, air handling, and emissions solutions. Cummins Inc. has applications in many various industries such as automotive (Dodge Pick-up trucks), marine, mining, agriculture, and power generation to name a few. Cummins is also a fortune 500 company, which employees 33,500 people world wide in 160 different countries, including India , China , and the UK . Cummins Inc. produces engines from 31 to 3,500 horsepower and from 1.4 to 91 liters displacement. In 2006, Cummins Inc. posted revenues of $11.4 billion.

I mainly worked with the 19, 38, 50, and 60 liter marine engines. The main goal of the marine group is the development and release of the tier 2 emissions engines. Tier 2 is an emission standard set by the EPA in an effort to systematically cut down engine emissions. Most of the projects involved mechanical development, testing and evaluating certain engine components on the new engines.

One of the main projects I worked on in the summer was thermal imaging analysis for the 19 liter engine. For marine vessels, all areas on the engine must be below 428 o F to comply with agency standards. To determine the heat of the engine, a thermal camera is used. A thermocouple is used to get a skin temperature measurement on the engine in order to calibrate the thermal camera. Since different materials have different emissivities, the engine is painted black to assume the emissivities across the engine are constant, and only the different temperatures are picked up by the camera. My job was to analyze the results of the thermal pictures. Using software to view the images, it was determined there were certain hotspots that developed around the turbocharger mounting spacer heat blanket. From the analysis, I was able to assist in the redesigning of the heat blanket and work with the supplier to obtain another prototype blanket. Further testing will be conducted to evaluate the new blanket.

Another project worked on was a Dimensional Variation Analysis (DVA) for the 38 and 50 liter engines. DVA is a scientific expression for stack-up analysis for the components on an engine. When manufacturing parts, there are specific dimensioning tolerances that are set for each part. DVA is a process using statistics to determine how much variation is achieved when parts of the engine are mounted together, given their different tolerances. On the 38 and 50 liter engines, a new turbocharger support system was designed to connect to the flywheel housing. My job was to conduct the DVA to analyze the new design and prevent potential stack-up issues and confirm tolerance. I had to review many engineering prints of the different components of the engine and apply the different dimensions from 2D to 3D. This project helped my understanding of geometric tolerances and helped to sharpen my print reading abilities in which I can now easily read multiple page prints.

Some of my other main duties were writing teardown procedures and technical reports. Teardown procedures are reports the technicians and mechanics follow to teardown engines in test cells for analysis after the tests have been performed. After obtaining important data such as cap screw torques, damaged parts, etc, from the teardown procedure, major engine components can be sent to laboratories for further analysis. Technical reports are official Cummins Inc. reports which document the various findings of an experiment. After an experiment is performed and the data has been analyzed, technical reports enable other Cummins employees to view the data and possibly use the same data in the future. I have been able to write technical reports on thermal imaging, dimensional variation analysis, and various components temperature analysis to name a few.

Other than the various projects I have been able to work on during my time here at Cummins Inc, I have also been able to gain valuable experience through many other opportunities. I have been able to attend numerous on-the-job training sessions such as: engine familiarization, where I was able to assist in tearing down an engine and putting it back together again, design for manufacturability, and failure mode analysis. I have also been able to see a marine customer and perform service on two 50 liter engines on a tow boat operating on the Ohio River . Being able to attend technical team meetings each week enabled me to see the structure of the engineering groups and the experience to work with different groups of people."