Huskies Invent provides big benefits for SCSU student, Thermo-Tech Windows and Doors

SCSU Mechanical Engineering student Trevor Hornsby explains his progress to SCSU Mathematics professor Dale Buske.

When looking to return to college after a five-year gap, Trevor Hornsby saw two things about St. Cloud State University that drew his eye: the Husky Make-it Space and Huskies Invent.

"When I was coming back (to school) I really liked the fact that SCSU had a large lab for 3D-printing, and that Huskies Invent tackles a real-world problem," Hornsby said. "Coming from working in maintenance, I like problems I can solve."

That desire served him well during the recent spring edition of Huskies Invent, which was sponsored by Thermo-Tech Windows and Doors. Huskies Invent is a weekend-long event where industry partners present engineering and manufacturing challenges right from the factory floor to SCSU student teams.

The teams worked with Thermo-Tech mentors and SCSU faculty to propose solutions to five challenges, developing proof of concept prototypes, formal presentations, and a white paper about the solution for the sponsors to take back with them.

Thermo-Tech did more than just take students' solutions back to their company's manufacturing plant in Sauk Rapids; they offered Hornsby an internship. It was the company's first-ever internship, and Hornsby was brought on for the summer to work in the engineering department.

"They created an internship and hired Trevor because of Huskies Invent and getting to watch him work for a weekend," said Mark Schroll, Assistant Professor of Environmental and Technological Studies. "That was supposed to end at the end of the summer, but now they've extended it into the school year."

Hornsby will continue to work 20 hours a week at the company during the school year while he finishes the final two years of his degree. He's spent his summer helping optimize processes at the company's manufacturing plant, some of which are an extension of the same problems SCSU students worked on at Huskies Invent, while others have come up during day-to-day operations.

His team took on the challenge of spring pin assembly for window screens at Huskies Invent, which sought to reduce the non-value added steps and repetitive motion a worker had to do. Workers had to take the springs out of a box and manually put hundreds in 2×4 pieces of wood.

Hornsby did some testing to find a machine that can do the work, aligned the tubing and utilized a vibratory bull feeder for the pins to make it a much more efficient process.

"He's been a great resource to go to for a lot of these projects; he's been invaluable and a great addition to the team," said Duncan Ryan, Thermo-Tech's Facilities Manager.

Hornsby has also designed a series of test gauges (known as go-no-go gauges) to simplify product testing, having the items 3D-printed at SCSU's Make-it-Space. SCSU's Technology and Engineering Career Network (TEC Network) supplied a 3D printer for Hornsby to use over the summer at the plant, which was a huge help in simplifying processes at the company.

The go-no-go gauges are especially useful, quickly helping check quality before a material reaches the production line. This helps having to avoid having to shut down production due to an error, and it was a project that was quickly brought to Hornsby's attention.

Another problem arose when the team unloading patio doors would have them pop open, creating a potential safety problem. Hornsby came up with an initial solution, but then realized he had to re-think his approach.

"I was able to use what I learned from Huskies Invent to solve a problem … (at first) I was only solving the symptom and not the issue," Hornsby said. "I went deeper to realizing the keeper on patio doors wasn't being put in straight. I created a guide that snaps into the keeper and frame, which helped keep it straight. I also talked with the supervisor of the line to move it up in the process so they can be drilled in more parallel to the frame."

Hornsby is using his expertise and resources from SCSU to make a direct, positive impact at Thermo-Tech. It's just another example of how community partnerships like Huskies Invent can benefit the students and company.

"The event is an awesome opportunity for students to work on real world problems, employees to interact with students and for problems to be solved for the business," said Michael Cambronne, Director of Operations at Thermo-Tech Windows and Doors.

"Trevor has made a huge impact to many of the projects and opportunities going on at Thermo-Tech," Cambronne added. "It has been a great success and partnership for us."

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