Internships in Sweden 2005

Florian Hohensinn, Thomas Tuschek (5MMA) Harald Weinheimer (5MUA), Florian Pixner (4WMA) Christian Kreutzer, Michael Mayrhofer, Joachim Schendl (5WIA) Thomas Gann, Maria Schobesberger (5WMA)

Left to right, front row: Ms. Gisela Bohlin (GTG), Maria Schobesberger (5WMA), Sabrina Weigl (Linz), Nina Haas (Linz), Patrick Zoller (Hallein), Christian Kreutzer (5WIA), Thomas Gann (5WMA), Florian Pixner (4WMA), Michael Mayrhofer (5WIA), Dir. Eric Alexandersson (GTG), Thomas Tuschek (5MMA) Back row: Florian Hohensinn (5MMA), Joachim Schendl (5WIA), Harald Weinheimer (5MUA), Johannes (Hallein)

At 09:30 on August 5, nine students of HTL Vöcklabruck met at the railway station in Attnang-Puchheim. From there, we took the train to the main railway station of Munich, where we changed to the tram to the airport. There we met the two girls from HTL Linz Goethestraße and the two boys from HTL Hallein. In the late afternoon we flew to Amsterdam, where we changed to a plane to Gothenburg, where Gisela Bohlin awaited our arrival.

View of Götheburg

After a sincere welcome, a bus sent by Volvo took us to our apartment, where we would be living for the next five weeks. There we got further information about Gothenburg and what we would be doing in the coming weeks. The next morning Gisela picked us up at our apartment to do some sightseeing by boat.

Afterwards we met some other exchange students from Mattersburg who had already spent two weeks at Sweden and talked about their experiences in Gothenburg. On Sunday we met the GTG student Nakisa, who took us on a trip to a nearby lake, where some of us also went swimming.

The following days Eric Alexandersson, Steve Frank and Gisela Bohlin introduced us to GTG, a technical secondary school supported by Volvo. We received a tour on the "Blue Train" and a lecture about the importance of safety at Volvo. We also attended a class at GTG for some hours to discuss the cultural differences between Sweden and Austria.

Panorama of Götheburg from the tower in Liseberg Park

Equipped with appropriate working clothes, we started our first working at the different departments on Thursday at eight o'clock in the morning.

In the second week Prof. Pixner visited us at our working places. With him we visited the Volvo Demo Center, where we could test the whole product range on a circular track. We also visited the Volvo museum, where we were informed about the development of the Volvo company.

We spent our spare time during the first week mostly at "Gothenburgs Kalaset", which is celebrated for one week each August. During this time there are live acts of various Swedish bands and artists. During this week we already discovered that going out in Sweden is pretty expensive. Many localities were inaccessible for us, although most of us were eighteen. Other activities included a day at the fun fair Liseberg and swimming at different isles in the southeast of Gothenburg, and on days with bad weather we visited museums and the botanic garden. Some students also rented a car for the weekend to see the country around Gothenburg, and others also traveled to Copenhagen. In addition, a student of GTG who is coming to Austria with two other students for nine weeks invited us to a barbecue party. There we talked with Linus, Alexander and Eric about what they would experience in Austria.

Sailing harbor at Saltholmen

In the final week our teachers Gernot Weissensteiner and Michael Müller visited us at our working places. We spent some fun evenings with them. The last Friday we did a feedback session at GTG, where we exchanged our experiences.

The five weeks went by very quickly, and on September 11 we found ourselves back at the airport in Gothenburg, from where we travelled back to Munich with a small stop in Amsterdam. There some of us were picked up and the others took the train back to Attnang.

Joachim Schendl (5WIA), Thomas Tuschek (5MMA)

Our working place was at the assembly shop in the department TC LME Quality Process. After receiving a detailed introduction at the assembly plant, we helped in various projects concerning quality management. For example, we had to check the transport boxes for tailgates and do collect data on failures in the brake and cooling system.

Visit to Volvo Test Center

Florian Hohensinn (5MMA)

I was the only one who worked at Volvo Trucks. The name of my department was 3P (planning, processing, projecting), which amounts to the development department. After an introduction to Piping, a Pro-Engineer application, my job was to construct CAD modules for the urea system and integrate them afterwards into the KOLA database.

Florian Pixner (5WMA), Harald Weinheimer (5MUA)

Our working place was at the paint shop, where we were put in charge of department TB2. In the first two weeks, our task was to develop a new cleaning system for the transport arms that would positively influence the priming layer. In the subsequent weeks, we were occupied with design a new worksheets for paint evaluation; these worksheets had to independently create a chart, store the values in a database, and clear the worksheet after successful entry.

Testing Volvos

Christian Kreutzer (5WIA)

I was the only one who had an internship at the R&D Concept Car Center. In this department concept cars are designed and the existing product range is researched and improved. My task was to prepare vehicles for the crash center, to help to test engines, and to redesign cars for special costumer wishes.

Thomas Gann, Maria Schobesberger (5WMA)

We worked at the Assembly Shop in the TC LME Product Support department. After a detailed introduction we got the chance to work in some of the areas, including on the line, in the service area and in car repair.

Michael Mayrhofer (5WIA)

The first two weeks I gathered and processed data concerning the car body paint defects from a database. The rest of the time I spent constructing another database for the administration of the workers in the paint shop. I also programmed all the programs for accessing this database by using volvo's intranet with Microsoft ASP.

We thank Mr. Pixner of HTL Vöcklabruck and Ms. Gisela Bohlin, Mr. Steve Frank and Dir. Eric Alexandersson of GTG for their excellent support. We highly recommend this type of internship and hope that this possibility will exist in the future.