Chase C. Schultz – 2022 Steel Intern Scholar

During my internship this summer at Cleveland-Cliffs Cleveland Works LLC, Cleveland, Ohio, USA, I completed many projects that used a variety of skill sets. My time at Cleveland-Cliffs has been a great introduction to the steel industry. I was placed in the caster at the steel producing department where I worked with maintenance supervision.
I spent the first part of my internship following my supervisors around learning about the caster and the overall steel production process. I quickly learned my way around and was assigned individual projects. My first project was to design a guard for a dummy bar head to protect an antenna. I designed the guard in Autodesk Inventor and then 3D printed a prototype on my personal 3D printer at my apartment. This helped test the fit and function before sending it out to get machined. I also worked alongside the mold crew for a few weeks and learned the maintenance and preparation process of the molds before installing them on QC’s. During this, I updated all the job safety analyses (JSAs) and standard operating procedures (SOPs) related to the molds. There have been many changes to the molds since the procedures were created so there was a lot of modifying involved. I put a lot of my Microsoft Word and Excel skills to use during this project and it has been very rewarding to see the paperwork being used on the floor.
Throughout the internship, I worked on resolving safety issues which involved installing new gates, stairs and overall facility cleanup. My main project was changing one of the turret cylinders. This was a week-long procedure that I lined up with Kelly Construction Iron Workers. During this project I worked alongside the ironworkers and took step-by-step pictures of the entire process. With the pictures, I wrote a 20-page SOP of the whole cylinder change to help decrease time and confusion for future cylinder changes. In the mornings my supervisor and I would go through the overnight reports, and I would line up the MTMs with what work needed to be completed that day. Through all these projects I learned great communication and time management skills.
My strengths were organization, time management, communication and a good work ethic. These strengths were developed from my schooling and my previous two years of internship experience. Over the past two summers I completed internships at Rehrig Pacific Company which is a plastic injection molding company. Although this was in a completely different industry, I had some great real-world experiences that helped me a lot at the steel mill. Now having experience in two different industries I feel I have a very diverse set of skills I can apply wherever I work.The challenges I encountered were learning all the technical terms of what things are called in a steel mill. Keeping your cool in such a hot environment can also be a challenge when many issues come up at once. I have learned that steel making is an incredible process that cannot truly be understood without getting your hands dirty in a steel mill.
Overall, my internship at Cleveland-Cliffs Cleveland Works LLC has taught me a wealth of new knowledge and introduced me to some great people. I am very grateful for this opportunity and am excited to see what my future holds in the industry.