This project develops an integrated laboratory to facilitate and strengthen the current undergraduate instruction of manufacturing processes within a Mechanical Engineering (ME) curriculum. Along with the college's materials testing equipment and computer-aided engineering and design facility, the new Manufacturing Processes Laboratory allows for vital hands-on experience in conjunction with the study of manufacturing processes, while emphasizing the integration of manufacturing with other key disciplines of the product realization process, including product design, stress analysis, and material selection. The main incentive motivating the development of the Manufacturing Processes Laboratory is the lack of a physical laboratory experience associated with the previous junior-level Manufacturing Processes class. The new facility allows students to learn about manufacturing processes through hands-on experience and participation in the fabrication and inspection of parts. The equipment thus serves to provide the vital link between theory and application and creates a more comprehensive and interesting learning environment. With this knowledge serving as a prerequisite, the students are given the opportunity to use the laboratory facility in the following additional courses: (1) Capstone Senior Design, offering a full year design-to-fabrication experiment to ME seniors, (2) Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, a proposed senior elective where the issues of computer-aided design, manufacturing, and quality control are addressed, and (3) Science of Materials, where the analysis of thermoplastics and their solidification properties has been without the benefit of physical demonstration. In addition, the new equipment can be introduced to freshmen engineering students in Exploring Engineering, a course providing an introduction to basic engineering concepts and issues.
