June 27, 2019 | 3 minute read
June 23 marked this year’s International Women in Engineering Day, a global awareness campaign to raise the profile of women in engineering and focus attention on career opportunities in our industry.
By encouraging girls into engineering careers, not only does society increase diversity and inclusion —a business imperative—but it enables an opportunity to fill the substantial future job opportunities that have been predicted in the engineering field.
In celebration of our women in engineering, we created a video featuring three of our women engineers—Christie Twist, Product Development Team Leader; Prashanthi Tirunagari, Senior Staff Engineer, New Product Development; and Kristi Hartwell, Continuous Improvement Engineer—in which they discuss how they got started in engineering, their biggest achievements and the importance of women in STEM.
Be sure to also check out additional interviews and short stories from women engineers across Smiths Group to learn more about why they chose their profession, the different paths they have taken and how they are helping Smiths create the future.
In addition to the videos, we’ve also profiled two of our women engineers in which they discuss their passion for science and some of their most memorable projects:
Name: Rui Liu
Location: Tianjin, China
Job Title: Gas Seal Design Leader
What are the primary responsibilities of your role?
I am a dry gas seal application and design engineer, working on the dry gas seal product line. I am responsible for the general assembly of dry gas seals, designing and drawing up new seal parts, and seal standardization.
What made you choose engineering as a career field?
When I was a child, I liked to disassemble and assemble toys. As a student, I enjoyed studying mathematics, physics and chemistry. I am specifically interested in geometry, mechanical design and mechanical drawing. I have a Masters degree in chemical process engineering, and after I graduated from college, I chose John Crane to work as a design engineer. I am proud to say I am still working here after 10 years.
What was the most fun/innovative project that you’ve been a part of at John Crane?
Working on the standardization of dry gas seal design and establishing test part databases have been some of my favorite projects.
Seal standardization work encompasses the design process—compiling part structures and part drawings, implementing design calculations, gathering guidance documents, and creating test design and framework standardizations. The seal standardization process provides design engineers with rules of consistency to follow when it comes to seal design, which reduces the number of overall design drawings and error rates. When it comes to seal standardization, I am always working to update and improve the design processes.
The work of establishing a test database primarily includes drawing the arrangement of test parts, key dimension input of test parts and borrow management of test parts. This work makes it easier to facilitate the inventory management of test parts, improve the speed of part selection during test design, reduce the number of new parts processed, and thereby reduce the overall cost of the test.
What takes John Crane such a great place to work?
John Crane has a good company culture and excellent company leadership that creates a positive working environment. The company gives me many challenging job and learning opportunities that allow me to improve my skillset.
Name: Prashanthi Tirunagari
Location: Morton Grove, Illinois
Job Title: Senior Staff Engineer, New Product Development
What are the primary responsibilities of your role?
I design and develop sealing solutions for more challenging pump applications while also working to minimize environmental impact.
What made you choose engineering as a career field?
I enjoyed taking math in high school, and was attracted to the physical problem solving techniques. I chose mechanical engineering for my career path because it gives me the tools and techniques to develop the most innovative product solutions.
What was the most fun/innovative project that you’ve been a part of at John Crane?
I’m currently managing two New Product Development projects. The aim of these projects is to introduce two new John Crane products to the pipeline and high viscous pump application markets.
Additionally, last year, a colleague and I were given the opportunity to author an article titled “Advanced Computational Technologies for Mechanical Seal Analysis” for the publication Pumps and Systems.
What makes John Crane such a great place to work?
The work culture in John Crane is diverse, ethical and passionate, and its commitment to employee safety makes it a great place to work.