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Diana Freitas

Technical Designer

Cruz Martins & Wahl, Lda (CMW Foundries)/Portugal

Diana Freitas

 

The job

Technical Designer. Initially I started by doing the 3D drawings, over time with the support of my co-workers I started doing feeding and gating studies. I started at CMW when I was 26 years old. I have always had the support of the company and my colleagues to be acquainted with the foundry, with meetings and some training.

Education

  • - Degree in Industrial Design
  • - Master in Integrated Quality, Environmental and Safety Management Systems
  • - Professional Training Certificates:
    •    - Audits to Integrated Management Systems: Quality, Environment and Safety;
    •    - Internal Quality Auditors ISO 9001:2008;
    •    - Internal Safety Auditors OHSAS 18001: 2007;
    •    - Internal Environmental Auditors ISO 14001.

Skill and competences

  • - reading and interpretation of technical drawings;
  • - mastery of 3D modeling software and casting part filling simulation;
  • - knowledge of the feeding and gating process;
  • - knowledge of the different materials.

Key challenges and success factors

What drives your motivation?
What motivates me is the fact that I feel challenged every day.

Does your job make you compromise with something or make sacrifices?
My biggest sacrifice, if it can be called a sacrifice, is the fact that I drive about 50 km a day to work, which symbolizes a great deal of physical and mental wear.

What does it take to be successful?
The path to success is teamwork. And with this, good integration is always the essential thing.

What are the benefits, both personal and social?
On a personal level, it allows me to grow as a person and professional, it is something that brings added value to my performance and my growth. On a social level, the flexible schedule that the company allows me to have is a great benefit.

What challenges you meet working in male dominated environment?
In a world "mostly" made up of men, being a woman, the ideal is to never let yourself be frightened or inferior. Never be afraid to question, to ask questions, no matter how absurd they may seem, never be afraid to make mistakes.

Why you would recommend your job to other women?
Please, give some practical advice (tips) to other women to help them to enter in this field / activity? I honestly don't know if I would recommend it to a woman, if, like me, she has a degree in a field other than engineering, because, in this to perform my duties is a disadvantage.