 Internship in Schweden 2009
Anna Seiringer, Christoph Eichhorn, Simon Siller,
Alfred Beißkammer, Alexander Neuwirth (5BHMIM)
Frank Mair, Elias Mayrhofer (5AHMIM)
Work
Special Vehicles & Service
 Frank Mair
I worked together with an employee and we built in extra equipment like DVD-players,
massage seats and refrigerators into new cars and after this I drove them outside.
Furthermore we mounted side skirts and exhaust pipes for the sports edition (R-Design).
 Simon Siller
I worked together with five employees in the “montörs grotan”. There we fixed
used cars before they were resold. The guys I worked with was really funny and
congenial. We changed damaged parts of the body kit and recolored them or changed
damaged lights. It was a nice and interesting working place. I think I got the best
working place of all the guys who sent to Volvo. I learnt how to repair all kind
of car parts and also was allowed to drive with a lot of new Volvo cars the whole
time.
Christoph Eichhorn
The first four working days I was part of the polish-team. Of course it was not
so much fun to wash and clean cars the whole day. But after the four days I was
transferred to another station called “Special Equipment” which was much more interesting.
There I learned to install DVD-Players and to connect pumps for the heated massage seat.
Sometimes we also installed digital TV-sets, telephones, freezers and so on. After we
mounted those things we always had to test their functionality. Testing the massage
seat I liked best. All these extra equipment was combined with a lot of cables, plugs
and lights. To put the cables on their right place so that nobody could see them after
installing, I had to learn how to remove a lot of interior panels and to replace them
in the right way after I had done my work. We always worked together in a team on one
car. My team consisted of me and my supervisor Mona. If we had finished a car, in
most cases I was allowed to drive it on the parking space on the outside. There I
picked up a new one and drove it in to start at the beginning again. The most common
car we did was the Volvo XC90, sometimes S80 and rarely the V70. Whenever I was
allowed to drive a Volvo XC90V8 or a Volvo S80V8 I was very happy because they are
so powerful, awesome.
Three days of work I was placed at the station named “sports equipment”. There
I installed double-piped exhaust systems and new silver coloured side skirts.
The two days with the “AUDIT-TEAM” have been very interesting because the two
guys there are testing every function of the car. I was with them testing a police
car on the test track and even in the city. It was very nice sitting in the back
of a police car driving through “Kungälv” (it is an island). Altogether work was
very interesting and the five weeks went by quickly.
CVS
Elias Mayrhofer, Alfred Beißkammer
 
The first three weeks we worked in the area called CVS (Constant volume sampler).
Samples are taken and pass through an emission test into CVS. Our task was to make
Excel tables for the evaluation of the tested cars. Furthermore we analyzed the CVS
process and worked out solutions to reduce the duration of the testing time. The
remaining two weeks we worked in the Audit. This area is responsible for the quality
of the cars. The test contains for example a test drive, rain test, check of the
inside of the car and an examination for damages in the paint. At the end of our
traineeship we made a presentation about the whole CVS process which the cars have
to run through and made suggestions for improvements, where they can save time.
Volvo Trucks
Anna Seiringer
My duty at Volvo Trucks was the construction and development of a new filler cap
and a protective cover for tanks in the department “Fuel and AdBlue supply”. I worked
a lot of the time with Pro Engineer but I also wrote a lot of documentations. I designed
a few versions all alone which I presented to my group at the end of my internship.
Leisure time
Göteborg
 Alexander Neuwirth
Gothenburg is a very green city, with a lot of possibilities for freetime activites
as well as a versatile offer of nightclubs and bars. The first weekend we went to the
Avenyn, the main street in Gothenburg. But we soon realised that it's not enough to be
18 to get in every bar in Sweden. The age limit for some bars is even 25. On the second
weekend we found our favourite bar called Pustervik. The limit was 18 years and the beer
was, for Swedish condifious, very cheap. The price for 0.4 lites of beer was 40 Swedish
crowns or 4€.
Islands
Anna Seiringer
Everybody from our group went at least once to an island near Gothenburg’s coast.
Most of the islands are free from cars, so the persons there move around by autocycle.
We also liked the coasts a lot even though the weather was not very good. We really
don’t understand how to living an island with no supermarket and expensive restaurants
is possible. It was really good that the monthly ticket from Gothenburg’s bus included
the ferries to the islands.
Liseberg amusement park
Christoph Eichhorn
Certainly one of the highlights during our 5-week internship in Sweden was the
trip to the biggest amusement park in the north of Europe on a warm and sunny summer
weekend. The entry of the big park was about only half of a kilometre away from our
apartment. So it was not a problem to reach it on foot. From my bedroom of the flat
we had a nice view at the big wheel which looks like a huge ball-bearing of the
company SKF. The big rollercoaster Balder, which is completely made of wood,
was frightening and amazing at same time. The ride was the maximum of adrenalin
kick. I have never felt such a feeling before, really, really funny. There was
another rollercoaster called Canonen, where you can simply lose direction while
being driven through a big looping or with your head upside down. We stayed nearly
5½ hours at the amusement park because we tested almost everything once or twice.
Wooden rollercoaster Balden
Rollercoaster Canonen
Slottskogen Park
Frank Mair
The park Slottskogen is perfect for a lot of different sports and also for relaxing.
Furthermore there is a little zoo with moos, roe deer, horses, penguins, aquarium
fish and birds. You can also find numerous cafés, restaurants, museums and viewpoints.
Leisure park near our apartment
Alfred Beißkammer
Everybody from our group went at least once to an island near Gothenburg’s coast.
Most of the islands are free from cars, so the persons there move around by autocycle.
We also liked the coasts a lot even though the weather was not very good. We really
don’t understand how to living an island with no supermarket and expensive restaurants
is possible. It was really good that the monthly ticket from Gothenburg’s bus included
the ferries to the islands
Volvo Museum
Elias Mayrhofer
The Volvo museum shows the history of Volvo – from the first Volvos (1927) up
to the latest model. Furthermore you can see trucks, busses, motor sport vehicles
and jet engines for the aircraft construction. The Volvo museum is located directly
next to the sea. I can definitely recommend a visit to it.
The apartment
Simon Siller
The flat was at Utlandagardan 24 in a students hostel about 15 minutes with the
bus away from the city centre. It was clean, new, nice looking and well arranged.
In each flat, five people slept. Try to tell the reception from the beginning that
they should contact you if there is a problem otherwise there could be many disaccord.
It depends on the working place but the time from the flat to work takes between 30
and 90 minutes.
Dining in our apartment
A view of the apartment, or
learning Swedish from subtitles
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