Chemistry and Material Science Internship

Before stepping into the world of youth work, I spent a decade navigating the science and technology industry. But rewind to the start of that journey: I was a Chemistry and Material Science student stepping into a massive manufacturing plant for a six-month internship as a Chemical/Site Engineer.

Fresh off university textbooks, I quickly learned that real-world manufacturing line quality control is a whole different beast compared to lab bench experiments.

The Mission: Taming the Sheet Extruder

My daily mandate revolved around Quality Control (QC) and testing. Specifically, I was assigned to operate a Sheet Extrusion Machine—a heavy-duty piece of equipment used to test whether our manufactured polymers met precise industry standards before heading out the door.

If the extruded sheet isn't up to spec, the batch fails. Simple as that.

The Real Challenge: Decoding a 30-Year Legend

While standard QC testing was half the job, my primary 6-month project was much more critical: Writing the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) from scratch.

Here was the catch:

Zero Documentation: The machine had been running for years without an updated manual or standardized operating guide.

Single Point of Knowledge: Only one person in the entire plant truly knew how to operate and troubleshoot this machine—a veteran senior engineer with over 30 years of hands-on experience.

The Goal: Shadow the legend, extract decades of unwritten technical intuition, learn to troubleshoot mechanical hiccups on the fly, and translate it all into a foolproof SOP so line operators could run the process seamlessly.

The Impact & Key Takeaways

Over six months, I bridged the gap between knowledge and standardised engineering procedures:

Standardized Operations: Created clear, step-by-step documentation for machine setup, polymer sheet extrusion testing, and quality verification.

Troubleshooting Framework: Mapped out common mechanical and process failures along with their technical fixes, reducing downtime for plant operators.

Knowledge Transfer: Successfully preserved decades of operational expertise into a scalable guide for future plant personnel.

Adaptability: Proved that a solid foundation in material science principles makes it possible to walk into an unfamiliar industrial environment and master complex machinery quickly.