Canam Celebrates for the 4th Year - February 15-21 2009
The purpose of National Engineers Week is to raise awareness and appreciation of the contributions that engineers have and continue to make to society as a whole. N.E.W. is a chance, at Canam, to recognize the invaluable work that our engineering teams do on a daily basis, particularly in designing complex projects, which characterizes the joists fabricated by Canam U.S.

Canam sends a “shout out” to the 112 engineers within our company :

• 29 engineers at Canam’s four U.S. plants and St. Louis, MO engineering office
• 83 in the company at large
• and all our customer-engineers!
  

2009 Activities At the Sunnyside plant, the Engineering Department mentored Juan Garcia, a twelfth-grade student from Sunnyside High School, who is designing a dream home for his family as his senior project. Engineers also introduced two visiting Grandview High School students to the process for designing and fabricating joists. The students “shadowed” team members as they went about their daily activities. Keith Juedemann, engineering manager in Point of Rocks, MD, used licorice to demonstrate tension and compression to fifth-grade students. Juan Navarro, shop order supervisor, helps Sunnyside High School senior Juan Garcia hold up the plans for the family’s dream home, drawn up under Mr. Navarro's guidance. Canam Engineers Week 2009 Reaches out to Engineers of 2025! The Point of Rocks, MD plant’s Engineering Department travelled to Boonsboro Elementary School, Boonsboro, MD, where a class of fifth graders learned basic engineering concepts from Canam Engineering Manager Keith Juedemann, P.E. The youngsters divided into teams to build structures using K’nex kits provided by Canam. Send an email to tell us what you did for Engineers Week. 2008 Activities Contest: Connecting Canam Engineers with K'nex 1st Place Washington’s Show-Me Bridge Nicknamed for the great state of Missouri, the Washington team’s structure held 40 lbs. 2nd Place The St. Louis Gateway Bridge The Missouri team of engineers loaded their span with 20 lbs 4.2 oz of electrical wire, metal cans, chains and trailer hitch balls on a bridge enhanced with arches and a built-in distribution beam dressed up as an automobile. 3rd Place Rush Canyon Bridge Point of Rocks, MD’s team showed that last-minute pressure can stimulate excellence, with their bridge (where procrastination is a way of life, they admitted!) the bridge supported 26 pounds from a 20 pound weight from the bottom and 6 pounds of steel plate cores from the top. 4th Place Sunny Span Bridge The Sun Buildings team (Sunnyside, WA) loaded their bridge with 4 ½” and 7 ¼” plate with a load of 16 lbs. 5th Place The Vegas-Style Bridge The Sunnyside, WA Joist team’s bridge held loads of 16 lbs generated by 3 reams of paper! 6th Place Hambro Bridge This bridge was inspired by the beam bridge combined with the Hambro Concrete Composite System joist's shape, with a cable car beneath to give you the ride of your life over Deerfield Canyon, accessible by an underground tunnel. 7th Place Jacksonville Arched Truss bridge This bridge, from the Jacksonville, FL team, holding a 9-lb load, features arched trusses much fitting the Canam theme of complex design, “Bring on the Tough Stuff!” Connecting Canam Engineers-2008 Contest Rules 7 teams had 1 work week (5 days) to build their models in their workplace only. Teams had to be led by an engineer but included detailers, checkers and drafters. Only the K’Nex pieces in the kits could be used for the design with up to 4 objects for aesthetics. LOADING: The structure holding the heaviest load will place highest. The load had to hang from center, and it could go below 0-0 elevation. No adhesive/glues could be used to strengthen the structure. A weighting of 70/30 was given to loading over aesthetics. 2007 Activities Contest: Connecting Canam Engineers with K'nex Winning Bridge, Sun Sunnyside, WA Winning Team Got a Question for Canam's Engineering Team? Email us here!