About LCL Electronics:
LCL Electronics is a contract manufacturer of military and high reliability commercial electronic assemblies. For 30 years, LCL Electronics has specialized in design engineering, including circuit design and printed circuit board layout, assembly line production and all aspects of inspection and testing.
One of their current projects centers around control boxes. “The government gives us a ‘piece of paper,’ asking us to draw the control box design from just that image,” explained Allan Loney, CEO of LCL Electronics. The challenge, he said, is figuring out how these drawings have been put together. Due to the nature of the government contracts, LCL can’t contact the engineers who originally drew them. Part of the job is figuring out the breakdown of the device construction on their own. Because of this, some projects can take up to a week to design.
When Loney decided to hire intern Chris Hacker through SciTech, he took his strengths and experience in computer aided design software (CAD) into serious consideration. After all, Hacker would be helping LCL design tools and fixtures for some pretty complex projects, and needed to know how to assess the drawings and design them from scratch.
“Having Chris,” Loney said, “makes us more profitable. We can expand. I’m looking at new multimillion-dollar jobs that I would have had to pass on without him.”
Meet the Intern:
Chris Hacker is a college senior studying Mechanical Engineering at St. Cloud State University. His talents with mechanics began in high school while working in a machining shop, where he first learned how to read prints and set up and run different machines.
Hacker’s biggest takeaway from his time at LCL Electronics he says, is “having fun designing. I like the challenges I face, and I like overcoming them.”