Chen Chen, a mechanical engineering graduate, was working at oil fields in Alberta and Texas until the market declined. Chen decided to move back to Canada and explore a new field of technology.
“I was looking for jobs and I thought maybe I will learn more skills that will help me with my job search,” Chen says. He was looking for work while pursuing a Non-Destructive Evaluation diploma from Mohawk College. At the college Chen found something that caught his attention, a job posting.
It was a lab technician position at the Additive Manufacturing Research Centre – now called the Additive Manufacturing Innovation Centre. He decided to apply. Chen says the work environment seemed very friendly and innovative.
“I had heard of 3D printing before but mainly on the plastic side,” Chen says. “They have the metal 3D printing machine which I had never seen before.”
During his time at the Additive Manufacturing Innovation Centre, Chen worked with industry partners on various 3D printing projects. His favourite project was making a device that washes paint brushes.
He enjoyed the freedom of design he was given and the opportunity to work with a team.
“Not only do we learn from our own projects, we collaborate with other students,” Chen says. “We are learning from each other.”
“Jeff and Simon did a very good job at assessing each of our abilities and gave us the right projects to work on,” Chen says about the Centre’s general manager and project manager.
Chen took his machine operating, programming and design skills he learned at Mohawk to further his career. He was recommended for a position with Voestalpine at their new additive manufacturing centre in Mississauga.
Voestalpine is a global technology and capital goods company focused on high performance metals. Chen is a design engineer/operations lead at Voestalpine’s Additive Manufacturing Centre. The company is working on research and production of innovative metal 3D printing, much like the Additive Manufacturing Innovation Centre does. The team Chen works with is a group of seven, four of those being former students from the Additive Manufacturing Innovation Centre
“There’s lots of opportunities in the world of additive manufacturing,” Chen says. “It’s a growing industry and things are moving rapidly.” These opportunities translate to careers for those with 3D printing experience.
“Do well on the projects and do well in the lab,” Chen says as advice to new employees of the Additive Manufacturing Innovation Centre . “The opportunities will come.”
