“Applying science to the common purposes of life.” This simple but ambitious statement has been the mission of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) since its founding in 1824. And the university has consistently delivered on its promise by graduating leaders in biotechnology, nanotechnology, computational science, manufacturing, and software—with many of the disciplines increasingly intersecting.
It all starts on RPI’s sprawling 275-acre campus in upstate New York. The school’s innovative curriculum, which is designed to educate leaders of tomorrow for technology-based careers, is supported by internationally recognized faculty, industry partners, and hands-on access to the latest equipment, advanced software, and other on-campus resources.
The list of partners and advisors includes Boeing, CNC Software (Mastercam), Haas Factory Outlet, LoDolce Machine, Lutron, Nexeo Plastics, NSH USA (Simmons), Putnam Precision, RBC Bearings, Sandvik, Sikorsky, Snap-on, Specialty Silicone Products, and Visual Knowledge Share. In some cases, these companies supply direct support to RPI’s classes and students.
As the director of manufacturing innovation for RPI’s School of Engineering, Sam Chiappone is a key part of the team, serving as a director and instructor of fabrication and prototyping for more than 25 years. He shares his insights here about RPI’s philosophy, the future of education, and the importance of working with industry partners.
Manufacturing Engineering (ME): What’s your role at RPI?
Chiappone: I collaborate with faculty and staff to set strategic direction for our manufacturing facilities in the School of Engineering, and also some of the undergraduate and graduate classes. We work with a number of industrial partners to evaluate our programs so the content is on par with what’s happening in industry. Together we are responsible for helping future engineers move from theory to application, working on the practical side of engineering.
ME: What types of manufacturing equipment can students access on campus?
Chiappone: Our Manufacturing Innovation Learning Lab (MILL) is outfitted with various CNC machining equipment, as well as robotic manufacturing, and plastic injection molding machines. Also within the School of Engineering, I manage the Haas Technical CNC Machining Center and JEC Student Machine Shop. All serve as classrooms and an open project shop. These facilities support RPI’s senior capstone projects, which are industry-sponsored initiatives that people bring to us. The director of the design lab and a staff of engineers will assemble a team based on the problem content. If something must be machined or students need to use a robot or other manufacturing resources for a project, the manufacturing team supports that.
ME: How do industry partners support the education process?
Chiappone: Mastercam team members, for example, are involved in a couple of different classes we have here at RPI. They are involved in the introduction to Computer-Aided Machining class, but they are very heavily involved and well-respected partners in our Manufacturing Processes and Systems class.
ME: Are there real-world, post-graduate benefits for students?
Chiappone: Students learn through immersive educational experiences, and they often report back that they are using skills learned in the manufacturing labs daily, even five years and more out of school. Manufacturing Processes and Systems is one of our premier manufacturing classes for mechanical engineering students because the lessons that are learned in that class can be applied to a lot of different manufacturing situations. If somebody goes off and starts working for a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility or a food processing plant, the lessons from that class can be applied.
ME: Can you elaborate on this class and describe the process for the students?
Chiappone: Sure. It’s set up as a competition (usually four teams, each with 12 students). We start out in the fall with primarily senior mechanical engineering students, and we give them some type of a widget (anything from a model of a Ferris wheel to a yo-yo or a Skee-Ball game) to design and build. The teams perform engineering analysis of what will be needed for their projects. They go through lab exercises related to plastic injection molding, metal-forming operations, robotics and automation, CNC machining, additive processes, conventional machining, and inspection. They’re looking at all the different tools that an engineer has to build the system, and they must do all the calculations. If we are going to bend something, what’s it going to take to bend that? If we are going to machine something, what’s it going to take to machine that? What are the speeds? What are the feeds? What type of fixture is needed to take the forces of a cut?
At the end of the project, the most important learning outcome is the team documenting their engineering work in what we call a technical data package. This document is the history, engineering, processes, and standard operating procedures developed by the team to build their manufacturing system and produce their design according to specification.
ME: How important are simulation and modeling?
Chiappone: There’s a big industry push, and we knew it was critical to start showing engineering students how simulation is used in manufacturing to give them a foundation in that area. This understanding is critical, especially for novice programmers. Every machinist knows a CNC program should never be tested on a machine because the potential for wasted material and time is too great.
So, we looked at the four process areas that we had in the MILL: CNC machining, robotics, plastic injection molding, and metal forming, and we put a proposal together to get a grant from the Office of the Provost to build those lab exercises.
We have been using Mastercam since 1995. Since that time, we have had 70 students per year use Mastercam. It has helped from back when we had basic 3D milling all the way to the five-axis applications we have now. It has been a workhorse for us throughout the years and has always done what we needed it to do.
ME: What did you learn from the pandemic and its effect on the student experience.
Chiappone: For us, the pivot to a remote learning model during the pandemic served as a test case, accelerating the use and importance of simulation tools. It proved that we could use the simulation lessons, and prepared students for their eventual return to campus. They were able to come back to RPI and build physical systems in the MILL from their simulations.
ME: As an educator, what’s your motivation and how do you impart that to students?
Chiappone: We are always pushing ourselves to say this isn’t good enough and we need to teach our students more. What are our students going to see when they go out into industry and what will they be seeing five years from now? I think that the teaching and staff manufacturing team has always been pushing our manufacturing programs through continuous improvement efforts. It’s not that what we’re doing isn’t sufficient, but we want to make it better. We want to make sure that when our students graduate, they can hit the ground running and understand current manufacturing systems.
The best thing is when an alum says, ‘What I learned in the MILL I use every day in my career.’ That’s what I love to hear.
Avanade, a leading Microsoft solution provider, has acquired eLogic, a Rochester, N.Y.-based technology consulting firm that provides Microsoft and SAP services and manufacturing operations solutions. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.The addition of eLogic is expected to help Avanade expand its portfolio of services. Meanwhile, eLogic will be able to offer its clients a broader set of specialized capabilities across end-to-end solutions for manufacturers, according to the companies.
The acquisition will add more than 70 mid-market and enterprise-focused clients to Avanade’s manufacturing portfolio, as well as 80 professionals to its existing business applications team.
“With this acquisition we continue to redefine how Avanade brings the best of the Microsoft ecosystem to our clients,” explained Eric Miquelon, president of Avanade North America, citing the combination of SAP’s configuration technologies with Microsoft Power Platform and Dynamics 365 solutions.
Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division introduced its HxGN Machine Trainer at IMTS 2022. With the multi-axis CNC and CMM simulator, educators and students can leverage the new operator-programmer trainer within a minimal footprint on the factory floor or in the classroom. The system features realistic machine preparation scenarios and provides interchangeable CNC controls to cover various types of machine language mentoring, Hexagon said.
The flexible training system, which offers a wide selection of digital twins of different sizes and brands to simulate mechanical design, is based on the new-generation of NCSIMUL and I++simulation software, combining software and hardware to create a solution that is practical and easy to learn, according to the company.
Simulated training also allows manufacturers to safeguard their equipment, while educational institutions can forgo costly investments and the associated large footprint for industrial equipment.
Convergix Automation Solutions, which is backed by private equity firm Crestview Partners, has completed its acquisition of AGR Automation, a U.K.-based provider of custom automation design and systems integration. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.
The deal is the third in Crestview’s strategy to build Convergix into a diversified automation provider, following the acquisitions of JMP Solutions in August 2021 and Classic Design in February 2022.
Founded in 1970, AGR provides automated systems to multinational customers across a variety of sectors, including life sciences and consumer goods. AGR’s 130 employees work across three locations in Scotland, England, and Northern Ireland. Managing Director Derek Gaston will remain in an advisory role, while other senior managers will continue in their current roles.
“The acquisition of AGR and its subsidiary company Aylesbury Automation accelerates Convergix’s planned global expansion and marks our first foray into Europe,” explained Mike DuBose, executive chairman of Convergix. He said Convergix will leverage its existing operations across North America and India to “create more opportunities for AGR to deliver exceptional customer solutions.”
Marposs Corp. has launched a new digital platform that integrates the company’s monitoring, measuring, testing, and other manufacturer systems throughout the production process. Dubbed MAINDO, the new system is said to integrate various features into a holistic production monitoring system that yields improved production quality, reduced costs, traceability, and remote data accessibility.
Marposs’ modular software systems, comprised of brands such as Blulink, MG, Brankamp, Artis, and S&K, enable a direct network connection between a production level system, a process monitoring system, or a PLC terminal and the production control and quality management systems with higher-level software systems such as ERP, PLM, and MES, according to the company.
Data that is typically stored in separate domains—such as machine parameters, production process information, inspection results, and continuous improvement process information—are brought together into a single view to provide information for failure detection and prediction. Root cause analysis and domain know-how quickly bring information to all stakeholders with customizable dashboards.
The platform uses Marposs’ QuartaEVO software for a secure and efficient quality assurance process for product prototyping through serial production, as well as incoming and outgoing goods inspection, the company said. MAINDO provides instant access to device and process data updates; multi-level failure detection; and root cause analysis.
In addition, Marposs said, the new platform enables global access to devices and process data to recognize malfunction, update software components, gather development specific data, and identify and predict level of service.
ProShop USA Inc., Bellingham, Wash., said its new cloud-based ERP file management system, ProShop SAFE (secure access file ecosystem), will enable companies to achieve multi-dimensional, roll/user based data security compliance to multiple industry standards.
The system ensures that only authorized users have access to specific files and folders managed through the unified credentials and authentication of their ProShop login. Combined with the company’s GovCloud hosting suite of features, SAFE limits a shop’s controlled unclassified information (CUI) footprint, which ProShop said simplifies and economizes compliance efforts, as well as protecting other sensitive company and customer data. Future versions are expected to streamline marking of CUI, CTI, and FCI.
ProShop ERP is the only shop management ERP/MES/QMS software specifically designed for defense and aerospace CNC machining and manufacturing with these levels of security controls, according to the supplier.
The system helps prevent employees from accidentally deleting or moving critical information they aren’t authorized to act on. User-definable file access security groups within ProShop’s user module of ProShop enable security administrators to define permissions of all folders and files within the file store, and provide read/write/execute, or forbid access, to any configuration of approved folders, subfolders, and files.
Farmington Hills, Mich.-based Star Cutter Co. is introducing Star AR Support Solutions, its new augmented-reality capability.
The technology enables remote customer assistance via AR glasses and a wireless connection, with application support, training, maintenance, and troubleshooting on the Star Cutter NXT and UTG grinding machines. This helps limit potential downtime, expediting service on the machines and reduces the cost of service visits, according to the supplier.
Customers can rent AR glasses from Star Cutter or purchase their own set. When an incident occurs, an AR session is initiated through a service request and the connection is made via wireless technologies. Connecting via a PC, the Star Cutter technician is able to see exactly what the operator is seeing on the machine, enabling remote training, immediate insight on machine tool issues, execution of simple maintenance tasks, and application setup assistance.
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