The trainees at mechanical engineering company Klingelnberg have risen to a completely new type of challenge. With a great deal of enthusiasm, they accepted the city of Hückeswagen's request for assistance in preserving and maintaining the mini golf course at the Brunsbachtal Youth Center. The task set by the city was as follows: "Plan, develop, and construct an obstacle with individual corporate character for a mini golf hole."
The "Mini golf course" project team was assembled at Klingelnberg without delay. Elise Perrevoort (trainee company clerk), who was in charge of organization, and Roman Göhlich (trainee industrial engineer), who was responsible for technical implementation within the project, formed a working group together with trainees Lisa-Maria Dauder (trainee technical product designer), Oliver Breidenstein (trainee industrial engineer), Lars Müller and Nico Marquardt (both trainee mechanical engineers).
They quickly got the ball rolling by launching the project and making an initial visit to the mini golf course, together with the director of the Brunsbachtal Youth Center, Andrea Poranzke, and Klingelnberg's training supervisor, Ralf Biesenbach. The project group came up with a wide variety of great ideas for the course design, each of which was initially visualized on the computer by Lisa-Maria Dauder. The team's own objective was to create a distinctive recognition factor for the company by integrating its typical bevel gear drive components as a unique feature of the obstacle.
In the next step, two of the preferred proposals were submitted to the management and approved. The ambitious project team then continued to refine the technical nuances and details over the course of several group meetings until the mini golf course design was ready for production, to the satisfaction of all project participants.
Once all the materials required for the project had arrived, the team members immediately applied their craftsmanship skills to the model that had been visualized on the computer beforehand. Lars Müller and Nico Marquardt were the first to begin, eagerly taking on the machining of the individual components, which included the process steps of "cutting," "drilling," and "turning" on the CNC machine tools. Then Roman Göhlich and Oliver Breidenstein joined the individual parts together by means of complicated installation and welding work. The small, unpredictable problems that occurred within the project as the components were being processed and assembled did not give the project team any major difficulties, and were all resolved in an optimum manner. And last but not least, the frame for the test presentation was erected independently by the trainees and then prepared for electroplating. The trainees also independently carried out the final installation of the obstacle on the course.
On the whole, everyone enjoyed working on the "Mini golf course" project. On July 1, 2015, the six trainees confidently presented the completion of their mini golf hole (hole number 7) at the course to the mayor of the city of Hückeswagen, Dietmar Persian, and the director of the Brunsbachtal Youth Center, Andrea Poranzke.
"We are extremely proud of our young talent at Klingelnberg, because the project team has proven not only that it can approach a new task in a focused manner, but also that can produce a high-quality final result, even under deadline pressure," summarized Christoph Küster, Chief Financial Officer at Klingelnberg GmbH.
The application process for vocational training in the coming year has already begun. To find out more, visit Job offers or contact Mr. Ralf Biesenbach by phone at +49 2192 81-342 or e-mail at bewerbungen(at)klingelnberg.com.