Student Placements at Buhler Sortex for 2013

Student Placements at Buhler Sortex for 2013 - 2014
Positions open to students from UK universities only
Buhler Sortex designs and manufactures optical sorting and rice processing machines and is a worldleading supplier of these machines to the bulk food industry. Based in London, Buhler Sortex employs
over 200 staff in the UK. The Company is at the forefront of machine vision technology and has won 6
Queen’s Awards for innovation and export achievement, the most recent in 2011. Buhler Sortex is part
of the global Buhler Group, see www.buhlergroup.com.
The placement students will be working in the Buhler Sortex Research & Development department,
alongside the 50 professional engineers designing the next generation of optical sorting machine.
Buhler Sortex has been running a student placement scheme for eight years now. Our scheme has an
excellent track record and is viewed as a recruiting ground for the Company’s engineers and managers
of the future. Four former placement students have returned to join Buhler Sortex after completing their
studies, while a fifth is currently undertaking a PhD sponsored by the Company. For 2013-2014 a total
of five student placements will be offered in the following areas:
Image Processing
Software Engineering
Electronic Engineering
Mechanical Engineering
Applications Engineering
The salary will be £17,800 and there are 25 days annual holiday and flexi-time working hours. To
apply, please send your CV and a covering letter to [email protected], indicating
“student placement” and the position of interest in the subject line. The closing date for applications is
23rd November 2012.
Input:
Accept:
Reject:
Buhler Sortex machines use cameras and ejectors to remove defects from food.
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Image Processing Placement
The placement student for Image Processing will gain experience of most aspects of research at
Buhler Sortex. The main focus of the research is to investigate new machine vision algorithms. A
significant part of the role is writing Matlab code, a programming language widely used throughout both
academia and industry for rapid prototyping of machine vision algorithms. Matlab can be learnt on the
job. The role includes undertaking experiments, learning new computer algorithms and experimenting
with algorithms that learn.
Previous projects have included:
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Developing a new algorithm for sorting vegetables by colour
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Investigating the factors that affect how grains flow down a chute
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Inventing an improvement to shape sorting, see picture below
The successful candidate will have a keen interest in images and computing and how computers can
be used to extract information from images. Ability in the core skills of computing, mathematics and
engineering is more important than any previous experience in machine vision.
The harvest of coffee includes a tiny percentage of sticks. This photograph shows the result of
using sorting by shape to remove these sticks from roasted coffee beans.
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Software Engineering Placement
This placement will appeal to those students with an interest in developing software for embedded
systems. An understanding of and an interest in software that controls and interacts with hi-tech
equipment will enable the placement student to make the most of this opportunity to experience real-life
software development.
As part of the R&D software team, placement students can be expected to work on a range of software
from C code on 8-bit micro-controllers all the way up to large-scale object-oriented C++ on 64-bit
desktop PCs. Areas of exposure can include interfacing to hardware, network communications, realtime operating systems and human-machine interfaces, to name but a few. All software worked on by
the placement student will be of real benefit to the organisation, whether it be prototyping, diagnostics
tools, or software to control a sorting machine.
The placement student will be expected to become involved in all phases of the software development
process including requirements gathering, design, specification, implementation and testing. They will
be able to see how the software engineering principles that they have learned apply to real-life and be
able to develop their skills in both programming and wider software engineering practices.
Development tools and hardware used by software placement student.
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Mechanical Engineer Placement
Degree: Mechanical Engineering/Product Design or equivalent
The Mechanical Engineering placement students at Bühler Sortex are fully integrated into a team of
around twenty mechanical engineers, four of whom are chartered, working within a multi-disciplinary
Research and Development department. The successful applicant will get the opportunity to experience
most aspects of mechanical design engineering (design and development of small development
projects, design testing, work alongside other disciplines within R&D, and engineering change orders).
The complexity of the design tasks and the level of responsibility will increase as the skills of the
applicant develop. The successful applicant will be expected to familiarise themselves with the
company’s CAD software, prepare drawings for manufacture and communicate with both the in-house
workshop and external suppliers. They will have the opportunity to work on projects involving real
production solutions.
Examples of student projects:

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Design and implementation of cooling system with Peltier coolers, for machines in the market in
California
Building a life test rig for actuators used on high speed conveyor belts
Ejector life tests
Designing and assembling a thermal test box and carrying out testing to discover cooling
requirements
Examples of CAD files developed by mechanical students
See our sorting machines in action.
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Electronic Engineer Placement
Electronic engineering placement students will be working in the Test Development group. The
primary role will be developing and building test equipment for testing pcbs/assemblies. This could be
as part of the development process, e.g. life-tests or a piece of equipment for use in Manufacturing.
The work will involve designing hardware, writing software and building up prototype systems.
Projects worked on by previous students include:
 Designing and implementing a stand-alone piece of test equipment using PLCs to test a
production “panel” used on a sorting machine. The panel is used as part of a belt-tracking
control system.
 The design of a test system to measure the pressure and mass flow of a pneumatic ejector.
Multiple systems were then made and used by one of our suppliers for the supply of ejectors to
Buhler Sortex.
 Designing and implementing a “life-test” rig for an actuator. This involved working closely with
the mechanical placement student and writing software to log data to a graph and file.
 Students will be expected to involve themselves in all aspects of electronic/electro-mechanical
design, from the concept through to the final build. This role will be ideal for someone who is
looking for both design and practical experience in a multi-discipline company.
Typical project completed by an electronic engineering placement student.
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Applications Engineer Placement
The Applications Engineering placement student at Buhler Sortex will have the opportunity to develop a
wide range of engineering and business skills and gain an understanding of the fundamentals of sorting
machinery. Working as part of a multi-disciplinary team within R&D (including mechanical, software and
electronic engineers) the candidate will also have the opportunity to work within a number of other
departments within the company.
The successful candidate could be involved in the following range of projects:
 Development of new applications for our current machines – for example, using spectral analysis to
determine wavelengths, cameras, lamps etc. to enable current machines to be used for different
products.
 Acceptance testing – ensuring new machine parts work as intended and will be accepted in the
markets.
 Analysis of machine performance.
 Commodity samples testing - carrying out sort trials on customer samples and analyzing the results
and improving machine performance to meet the customer’s requirements.
The ideal candidate will be methodical, practical and inquisitive taking a scientific approach to problem
solving. An interest in systems design would be advantageous.
Input:
Accept:
Reject:
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