Employee story Django Los
Meet Django Los. Django has a background in Automotive Engineering from the HAN and works at the Turbocharger division at MTEE as a test engineer since 2014.
Together with a team of colleagues, I am responsible for the creation, progression, monitoring and judgement of the Design Validation Plan of the turbocharger projects for our customer Mercedes-Benz. This also involves a lot of testing. I probably travel 7-8 times a year to external test facilities or the customer to perform specific tests myself. The rest of the tests we can do in-house at our test benches.
Most tests can be divided into three groups: performance testing, durability testing and noise testing.
In the beginning of a project, the highest focus is on performance because you have targets to meet. Durability testing can be done as soon as sample tooling parts and engines are available. These tests often mean running the turbocharger for 500 hours or more and measure along the way. These durability tests are performed at more severe engine settings, so that the normal lifetime of a turbocharger is accelerated.
The last tests we do are usually defining the production limits. Most important is the definition and agreement on the rotor balancing values (g-levels). Extensive noise tests are carried out to evaluate the turbocharger noise (structural and air-born) inside the driver compartment. These tests can be run as soon as the vehicle has reached pre-series conditions.
In the end, we have done around 100 different kinds of tests. This is necessary in order to get a fully operating and reliable turbocharger for end-customer usage. We have to specify the “black box” or the limits within which the customers can use the product.
What I especially like about my job is the variation of tasks. When a problem occurs, we get to dive into it and solve it. In this process, you learn a lot about how the technology works. Furthermore, you get to work with many of the big names in car manufacturing here. As my passion is cars, this is the right place to be.
