My academic appointment is more than just a daily routine for me - working with metal is a passion. Long before I finished school, I knew that I wanted to work in the trades. My father and sister are interior decorators, so maybe that's where I got my enthusiasm for craftsmanship from. What I particularly like about training as a precision mechanic in the university's mechanical workshops is that the work is so varied and diverse. We work with many different materials: stainless steel, aluminium, plastic or brass. They all have very different properties. When you work with them, you always have to adapt to them.
I help with the production of prototypes for research. I accompany the entire process: from the engineer's drawing, through the individual manufacturing processes to the finished workpiece. We don't work for large quantities, but produce unique items, so to speak. In this way, we help the scientists to gain new research findings. It's all really exciting!
I'm now in my third year of my apprenticeship and have already been through many different stages here in the mechanical workshops. I'm currently in the plastics workshop, before that I worked on the water jet cutting machine. I enjoy working with this machine the most. In waterjet cutting, the material is separated by a high-pressure water jet. This jet creates a very high pressure on the surface and cuts it in this way.
During my training, I learn to work very precisely. After all, as precision mechanics we work in the thousandths of a millimetre range. For this academic appointment, you not only need a keen interest in the different materials we work with every day, but also a penchant for numbers. We often use mathematical formulae, for example to calculate rotational speeds or the thermal expansion of materials.
I don't mind that most of my colleagues are male. There are nine precision mechanic trainees in total, three of whom are women. I have my final exam at the end of the year. Maybe I'll start studying after that - but the degree programme definitely has to be related to metal.
Written by: Daniela Reile
