- The work that they're doing is not just making small parts, they make planes fly.

- Something that I like physically touch is on that spaceship that's shooting into space.

It's pretty awesome.

- They wanna spread the knowledge because they understand that the next 20 years depends on who's here now.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] This time on "STEM Works," we're visiting Click Bond, an aerospace manufacturing company in Carson City that makes fasteners that help hold together airplanes, spacecraft, fighter jets, Navy ships, and more.

We'll meet Alexandra Tucker, a production lead who oversees the team that produces parts made of composite materials.

And Christopher Miranda Ruiz, a manufacturing and automation engineer who works to design and build machines that help Click Bond make its parts safely and effectively.

Also, Gino Galassini, a Field Applications Engineer who is leading Click Bond into the future with its Digital Solutions Team by utilizing augmented reality.

- We are this really big aerospace company.

We do adhesive bonded fasteners.

And what makes this unique is standard rivet, you have to do three holes and do your substrate.

And with Click Bond you only need one.

You're using an adhesive material.

So your substrate is stronger, it lasts longer, the install is a lot quicker.

- So the beauty of an adhesive bonded fastener is it can go anywhere.

If it flies, floats, or rolls, likely we have parts on it.

- We have a large variety of parts.

We have a building that's particular to composites, another that's particular to machining metal materials, others that are injecting molding, and all those come together to create either one product or its own product line.

- We have standoffs and studs.

The standoffs are hollow on the inside to where you can put a stud on the inside.

And then we also have Heli-Coils.

They're used pretty much on everything, NASA, SpaceX, Mars Rover, we have parts on airplanes.

I know Lockheed, Airbus, Boeing, they're some of our bigger clients.

And then we also have military application.

There's ships, Navy.

- [Christopher] What holds the airplane together is quite important.

We create different types of adhesive for the application.

- One of the benefits of using adhesive is it's lighter, which, you know, when you're thinking about like one rivet, you're like, oh, that doesn't weigh much.

But when you're putting 20,000 pieces on an airplane, having those extra two rivets on each one, the weight starts adding up.

My job as a production lead entails working with management and planning to help keep work flowing, to hit targets, it's working with my team members to support them in any way that they need, make sure everything goes out on time.

- My job here at Click Bond is to think about a new way of immersing our customer in the installation process, the training process.

We're using new technologies like digital solutions to help guide our customer as well as for our own internal purposes, how to make our product better, how to install it faster, how to track it.

- My job is in manufacturing/automation engineering, design and fabricate different types of automation equipment to the specific assembly or part.

- I get the team set up with the jobs, who's gonna be stationed where, if a machine goes down or if a machine's having issues, take a look at that, is that an easy fix that we can fix in-house or do we have to ask maintenance to come by and fix it?

I'll hop on a machine, I'll be running parts to help keep work flowing.

- The parts aren't just one singular piece being created, but it could be a facet of seven different subassemblies.

So each individual subassembly must match the drawing or a particular process to ensure that its quality is up to standard.

- We have the robot, we have our speed lace, and we have our diamond saws.

It includes the CNCs, which help trim our parts.

- So augmented reality, we're able to take something digital and overlay it on top of that physical piece with a headset and provide instructions or templating on how to install some of our products, think of it as a digital training manual as well as verification validation tool for a physical product.

And we're able to now place our parts using a digital template.

So we take that process that usually took about three months down to weeks.

- One of the many things I like about Click Bond is how many women work here.

Not only like running the machines, but also in leadership, running departments, which also gave me confidence that I could move up when I came in like, oh, I could do this.

- I love working here because of the teams that I work with.

Everybody at Click Bond, they all have this great attitude, and they're willing to help.

They wanna see these new ideas.

There's something to be said whenever you can say this company made a part that is now on Mars on the Mars Rover.

- We were able to get some parts onto that airframe, and I believe it is the last Rover active to this day.

There is a pamphlet that's quite amazing to see all the different missions we've been on, such as SpaceX, the B2, Humvees, Sikorsky helicopters.

- As the department grows, we're gonna need more people who are interested in this kind of thing, and we're looking for excited talent to join us along the way.

- So if you do have a STEM background, obviously we have engineering, we've got robotics, you've got the different areas that you can go into if you've got that background.

If you don't, you can come in at entry level, and then you can essentially learn as much as you wanna learn.

You get out what you put into it.

- You have the opportunity here right now to do what you wanna do.

We have quality engineers, the operator, to the supervisor, to the manufacturing engineer, all the way to the machinist.

And they wanna spread the knowledge because they understand that the next 20 years depends on who's here now.

- You can essentially thrive at this company because this company wants you to succeed.

They'll teach you whatever you wanna learn.

That's why they offer the school tuition benefits, and there's always something to learn in this company.

- There's always a new opportunity for somebody to branch off and learning the product, not just designing the product, how do you install it?

- You're in the right there, the right now, you're gonna be learning something new daily pretty much guaranteed.

- That's part of the exciting thing is that you get to be one of the first people to try it out and make it better.

(upbeat music) A lot of the people that work at Click Bond, especially in the areas that we're at, do have engineering backgrounds.

Mechanical engineering gives you a little bit of every kind of engineering.

So I mean the chemistry, the electrical, the mechanical, civil.

- [Alexandra] I think flexibility is another big part because things change.

You get a hot job in that needs to be changed.

Who do you move?

What machine do you decide to have down?

- Problem solving skills, that's really all engineering is.

You can memorize every equation, but you're still solving a problem, and we all come together to find that solution.

- I like the collaboration.

We do have people sometimes work in groups.

Some of our areas you have to work in teams.

- [Gino] Collaboration, communication.

There's a lot to being able to speak to the technology that you understand so well.

Being able to explain that in a way that gets everybody involved in the room, and that's very important.

- Always just work closer towards whatever goal.

Whether you wanna get to the next production tech level, whether you want to move to a different spot in the company.

- Best advice I can give, get out there, see what they're doing in the field, and see if it applies to you.

- We do do Manufacturing Day and we open up our hangar.

We showcase all of our different parts that we make.

And we essentially break it down for everybody on what exactly we do with our parts, where they go, how it's applied.

- We have a great program at WNC, which considers mechatronics.

It takes you through that wide range of being a technician all the way to the capability of being the engineer.

- I encourage people to go back to school.

I was taking three classes and working full-time.

I mean, if you can't do three classes, I just tell people take one, take baby steps.