Walter Boles

walter.boles@mtsu.edu

Walter Boles

Engineering Technology

Discipline specific equipment

VET 108 and a TBD room

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The new Mechatronics Engineering program shows signs of rapid growth and requires a complete line of Process Automation (PA) training system to not only help with teaching process control courses and industrial controllers and automation, but this equipment is also a pre-requisite for becoming a certified Siemens partner so that our students can take Siemens certification exams. The total cost for the PA line is approximately to 125k. The Engineering Technology Department is also reformulating our long-term strategy by replacing manual “shop equipment” that is 45 years old and moving toward an engineering prototyping laboratory. This will better serve students’ by augmenting their design engineering experiences with a required prototyping element. This requires more than metal machining capabilities. Therefore, we are proposing to purchase plastic injection molder and a plastic vacuum former in addition to replacing one of our 1969 metal lathes with a modern computer controlled unit. The new unit has many safety upgrades compared to the old unit as well computer controlled functionality. The mechatronics equipment will currently serve 70 students per year. With anticipated growth of the mechatronics engineering program, we expect this number to double next year and perhaps double again a year or two after that. The CNC lathe and plastics equipment will currently serve 160 students per year. The Experimental Vehicle Program students who account for another 40 to 60 students. This equipment will also aid in our course redesign efforts to modernize our curriculum in engineering technology for more design and prototyping emphasis.