Automated Manufacturing and Design is a 2 year program.
The Automated Manufacturing class gives the student an introduction to the production process that is used to create most everything we use in our daily lives. We take raw material and make several student projects utilizing both manual machinery and CNC machinery. The student will be introduced to basic blueprint reading, working with right triangles, basic SolidWorks 3D modeling, G Code for CNC machines and the AutoDesk CAM system. Each student will learn how to operate a manual mill and a manual lathe as well as the horizontal saw and pedestal grinders. Each student will make several projects using one or more machines as well as learning about the safety issues related to each. We have 8 different CNC machines available to us in our shop. We have 3 CNC Routers, 3 CNC mills and 2 CNC lathes and we will be learning about programming, setting up and running all of them. The project that garners the most interest is the Electric Guitars that the students make and take home at the end of their senior year. Some students have chosen to make chess sets that they design in SolidWorks, use Mazak conversational programming to establish cutting parameters, setup the parts on a CNC lathe and then run them. Most also make a custom chess board to go along with this project. We also have several 3D printers that the students can use if they get ahead on their projects to make parts created using the SolidWorks 3D modeling software.
