“It was the saw accident that catapulted my engineering career,” said Hope Fiely, who has been a mechanical engineer with Channellock Inc., the Meadville-based hand-tool maker, since May 2021. Fiely joined the company following graduation last year from Grove City College with a degree in mechanical engineering. She had done an engineering internship with Channellock prior to joining the firm.
The accident happened at Meadville Area Senior High during Fiely’s introduction to wood class as a freshman. She vertically sliced open the middle finger of her left hand while making cuts with a radial arm saw for her first project in the class — a wooden picture frame.
The accident led her to write letters to various companies in hopes of getting at least one new machine donated to the school to replace worn-out equipment. Her letters resulted in three power miter boxes and a band saw being donated.
The wood shop incident and four years with RoboBOTS, the student robot building competition, put her where she is today — a design engineer.
“I loved Legos (as a child),” Fiely said of what initially sparked her interest in designing and building things.
“I loved the hands-on manufacturing experience I got from RoboBOTS,” she said. “The experience from RoboBOTS helped me to find my heart always was in manufacturing.”
Fiely even volunteered in various capacities with the RoboBOTS tournament while in she was in college.
She calls herself a well-rounded project engineer who gets to do some design aspects as well at Channellock, including designing fixtures to hold pliers for polishing to finding ways to make processes more efficient.
As an intern at Channellock, she helped to develop a quality control gauge for the rivet on one of Channellock’s latest products — the 430X 10-inch SpeedGrip pliers. Its rivet allows for a push button change to adjust the size of the plier’s jaws.
Jon DeArment, Channellock’s president and chief operating officer, said the company is a long-time supporter of RoboBOTS, and his children have participated in it in the past.
“As a former RoboBOTS participant herself, Hope has been a great addition to our engineering group, and I’m proud to have her representing Channellock,” he said. “As the national demand for skilled tradespeople continues to increase, it is important that more people pursue technical careers, like those taught through the RoboBOTS program.”
What she learned through RoboBOTS has been invaluable, according to Fiely.
“It’s the experience of working with a team,” she said. “It’s learning team work, managing time and dealing with setbacks.”
“Some times we wouldn’t get a component or right before a competition, a component would break and you have to find ways to fix it,” she continued. “It’s the problem-solving aspect and learning communication.”
Fiely said she loves her job in manufacturing and the pride that she and others in manufacturing take in their work.
“I love our ‘Tool City Pride,’” Fiely said, referencing Meadville’s nickname within various manufacturing trades. “I love being able to go to RobobBOTS and see all the companies come together to sponsor the event and help students to continue it and have the pride in what they make.”
©2022 The Meadville Tribune (Meadville, Pa.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
