We continue to celebrate the innovative minds behind our products. Meet 2020 Patent Award Winner George Wilson, progressive die engineer at YKK (U.S.A.) Inc. Snap and Button Products. George has been working at YKK for 7 years. He became an engineer because he was born with “The Knack” and wanted to invent things ever since he was a child.
George shared that his favorite thing about being an engineer is “solving problems that other people have accepted as ‘the way its always been.'” Although having a heavy work load can be quite a challenge, George tries to not dwell on the amount of work he has and instead focusing on making progress. This is his advice to young people who are interested in starting their careers in the industry:
“When you’re working on large designs or plans, and you come to a point and think, ‘I will figure that out later,’ take the extra time to figure it out now – it usually saves work in the end.”
George received the 2020 Patent Award for his invention called “Protector Washer,”a stud with side guards. “My contribution to the invention were the nubs that hold the stud inside the protector for transfer and for attachment. This protects the stud from objects being dragged over it,” added George.
