2024 Steel Intern Scholarships
James R. Votava
I completed my internship this summer at AM/NS Calvert LLC, Calvert, Ala., USA. AM/NS is a 50/50 partnership with global steel producers Nippon Steel and ArcelorMittal. I worked with the mechanical maintenance team for the new mill that is getting built. At this internship I learned so much about steelmaking and all the components that go into making steel.
During my internship, I worked on projects while also having the opportunity to do safety walks around the mill with the mechanical maintenance team. The safety walks were to see if the mill was being built as the AutoCad animation showed and to see if everything was getting installed properly and safely. They allowed me to see different parts of the mill and get an understanding of how certain parts of equipment are supposed to be installed. I also got to attend meetings which talked about issues found on the safety walks and how to fix them.
I also got to work with software, Dr. Engrave Plus, which I used to engrave acrylic and aluminum tags for parts around the mill. Among the smaller projects I was a part of, the two main projects I worked on and led were the loading procedure and welding plan for test ladle steel slabs. To ensure the ladles could hold the desired metal amount, 43 slabs were used to test the weight capacity of the test ladle. I got to not only participate in the planning meeting on how to put the procedure into action, but I also got to write the loading procedure on how the slabs would be transported into the ladle.
The second project involved 10 of the 43 slabs. The slabs were too tall for the degasser which the ladle would be moved to, so to ensure easy removal the slabs would be broken into two groups of five and welded together. I was tasked with designing how the slabs would be welded together and come up with the required weld length needed to hold the slabs.
I enjoyed my internship very much. I got to present my project idea in front of the team and get feedback from them and got to experience being an engineer in a steel mill and working on real world problems at the Mill. I learned so much about steelmaking and all the procedures involved in making steel. I got to learn software and improve my knowledge of software I already knew. This internship has prepared me with skills to be a better engineer in my future endeavors.
I would like to thank AIST for the scholarship and AM/NS for the opportunity to work with them as an intern this summer. I would also like to thank my manager Jason for all the learning opportunities he gave me and my mentor, Andre, for giving me great feedback on my projects and taking me around the Mill and showing me something new every day. I would also like to thank my professor Mingzhi Xu for telling me about AIST and this scholarship that gave me this awesome internship.