2024 Steel Intern Scholarships - Willy Korf
Miles M. Johnson
I spent my summer as a metallurgy intern for Scot Forge, an open-die forging company. It was fantastic! As an intern, I split my time between working on projects assigned to me, which included mechanical failure analysis, heat treatment experiments, and metallurgy procedure revisions, and spending time on the shop floor watching and learning about what various employees do for the company. My projects were both engaging and educational, as I learned from both metallographers in the lab and metallurgists doing 
heat treatment analysis. However, at Scot Forge, the interns aren’t solely kept occupied by our projects; we were encouraged to walk around the plant and engage with shop floor workers about their jobs. My personal favorite department to visit was the Forge department, which is what makes Scot Forge unique among manufacturers. From their large presses to the gigantic manipulators used to hold and move parts during forging, to even the seemingly telepathic communication between members of the press crews, everything about the forging operations at Scot Forge is enthralling to watch. I visited the presses often during my time as an intern and was able to ask questions and learn from the operators; this knowledge went hand in hand with the “Forge 101” class our supervisor covered with his metallurgy interns. I would absolutely go back and be an intern again at Scot Forge. The experience was invaluable, and I’m so thankful to AIST for helping make my internship there possible!