AIST Foundation Steel Intern Scholarship - Benjamin F. Fairless
Benjamin B. Borchers
At my internship at CMC Steel Texas, I have been exposed not only to the excitement of working in the steel industry, but also a company full of incredible people who from day one has been invested in my development and what is best for me. One of CMC’s core values is being people oriented, and they have followed through with that value and time again.
When I first started, I could not make heads or tails of all the technical terms thrown at me, which was intimidating at times. However, during my two internships as a meltshop process engineer, I figured out that I have the capacity to learn fast and make real progress, even in just a few weeks during the summer. I had the opportunity to work on more than half a dozen projects, including a total operating procedure makeover, programming and optimizing an auto tap system into the PLC, and leading the way on increasing the reliability of our Kuka robot, each of which has been successful in positively impacting our process. I was able to accomplish these tasks because the people at CMC were always willing to listen to my questions and take the time to explain or show me what was going on, which provided me with an effective knowledge base far beyond my years.
One of my favorite projects I got to do was programming an auto-tap system for the furnace. After graphing months of data using Seeq data analytics, I could easily see the difference between each crew’s tapping style, which was causing consistency issues with alloy recovery and ladle life. By working with the furnace foremen every day and learning from our reliability team about the PLC, I was able to produce something, not only of high quality that works more than 95% of the time, but that was easy to understand and work on should an issue arise after I leave. I believe the mark of a good craftsman is simplicity and reliability, and I am proud of the impact I was able to have on this project.
After two summers in the steel industry, I can clearly see the quality of the opportunity in front of me. There have been some rough days at times, where a project moves slowly, or we take a step backwards, but there has never been a day where I was disappointed I had to go to work or wished I was working somewhere else. They say steelmaking gets in your blood, and when I feel pride after finishing a tough project or day, I can start to understand what they mean.