Having a CNC machine in the classroom
can really make all the difference when
you're teaching how to use machine tools.
Here's how the University of Iowa is
giving their students a leg up with
their PCNC 440. My name is Matthias
Perret I'm an instructor here at the
College of Engineering at the University
of Iowa, and right now we're in the
design for manufacturing lab. Part of
what we try to do down here is give
students some hands-on experiences on
the different machines that we have and
with a different manufacturing methods
that we have the capabilities to do, so
that they learn what these constraints
are, and how to utilize them to design
components for that specific
manufacturing process. I'm Eric, senior at
University of Iowa Mechanical
Engineering a lot of the students
probably have never even heard of what
g-code is. They have no idea you know
what g54 and g90 is so we're gonna teach
them okay so if we have a part in the 3d
model world that part has to come out of
a physical part in the actual real world
so a piece of Rostock so to teach them
how to take their part and put it in a
piece of raw stock and 3d modeling and
then start putting sequences together to
actually gradually mill their part to
how it's supposed to be and there's a
lot of students that by the time that
they're over they can kind of run with
it so they can have their own part
modeled and they could set their own
sequences up and they can come over to
the CNC and make their own parts on
their own without any additional input
which i think is really impressive in
four to five week period we had a 770 of
prior to this and the lab right next
door and we had a lot of experience with
it students liked using it it was an
easy-to-use machine that required
minimal training before our students
were proficient on it and the 440 was a
nice progression we heard that they
updated it to the path pilot software
they're just kind of excited to try it
out and see how it fits in the lab
within the lab you know we would give
students some basic instruction on it
then it's off to the races they got to
manufacture whatever they think up
design engineers this whole need to
understand that you can design just
about anything in 3d modeling but that
doesn't mean that you can actually make
it in the real world so if the design
engineer can design a product from the
get-go that has that in mind then that
means that you know the guys that are
from the tech
schools that are running the actual
physical machines are gonna have an
easier time and at the end of the time
at the end of the day if they have an
easier time doing it that's going to
reduce the costs so if we can get
students to put that into their brain as
they're actually designing the parts
from initial point then you know I think
everything is better everything goes
down the line as far as this machine is
concerned it's good because the
prototypes that our students are going
to develop are going to be a step above
you know they could very easily 3d print
them and assemble them in a 3d printed
structure but that won't undergo the
rigors of testing if they want to
validate what they're what they're
manufacturing so that's the value of
having something that can actually cut
metal there's most far as the
capabilities of this machine go I mean
it's more than capable to produce
anything that our students are working
on so another student was working on
making some more molds for the injector
molding machine that we have and they
needed to be put together you know
fairly accurately so the tolerances were
pretty tight and we got the first one
down and looked good we had no idea of
what was the second one's gonna look
like once we had the two together and
milled about the second one they went in
super nice and tight and there's no give
to is right it is really neat to watch
you can't beat the hands-on experience
to learn about it and it's bottom line
is it's fun you know I mean students
enjoy doing these types of activities
and it makes them learn the material it
gives us an opportunity to emphasize the
theory behind them so it's it's a
win-win situation as far as I'm
concerned thanks for watching check out
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