Present: Kurt Kwader and Joshua Levassiar from GS precision. Mike Pickett from HAAS/Trident machinery. Don Venice from Fullflex corp.
Not present : Jerry Wetherbee AirGas, Molly Holleran American Precision Museum,Brad Clough and Chris Scully HC packaging, Lars Blocher Bradford Machine.
Rich Thompson started at 3:00 with a meet and greet. Then went into what we are teaching in Man 1 and 2. Showed students projects and pics of projects that were made in the Welding/Fab shop and the Machine shop. We also discussed that we will be teaching Solidworks next year to some of our Manufacturing 2 students. They will be eligible after completing the class to test so they can earn a certification. It was also discussed that the plan was to have the manufacturing 2 students that are interested in a pathway of welding to earn credentials in welding.Kurt asked what are the details of the certification that we wish to achieve. Rich said this is something we are working towards and do not have all the details currently. He did say that his hope was to work with a company like AirGas to get a certification program started for next year.
The discussion then went to what the advisory board thought we should consider teaching. The folks from GS thought a 5th axis machine with a robotic arm will be a must moving into the future because of the short fall in workers. Their advice was to start thinking about this technology. GS said they are slated to put one on-line robotic device on their shop floor each month. They stated ,one of our former students Dylan Geiling is an intricate part of the team that is bringing their factory up and running with this new technology. GS was also impressed about the advancement in 3 D printers we made this year. They stated they currently have a number of similar machines at their faculty that they are making a big portion of their fixturning and prototypes. They were pleased to see a comparable machine that is prevalent in the industry that we are teaching our students on.
We then took a tour of the lab area, the board was impressed with what we have accomplished so far and they look forward to seeing the lab next fall with the changes we were discussing.
The HAAS representative said he will be forwarded some information on their educational 5 axis with a “Cobot” arm.
Meeting adjourned at 4:35 Respectfully submitted Rich Thompson
