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“Dirty floors and oily machines?” “That’s my grandpa’s age,” said Yuchieh Lou, a student from Harper College. Manufacturing students from Harper College in Palatine, Illinois received first-hand exposure to today’s manufacturing as a high tech field and hopefully, are considering manufacturing as a viable career option. On Wednesday, April 6^th, 14 students who are enrolled in the Manufacturing Technology Program at Harper College visited OSG’s carbide tooling factory in Bensenville for a field trip.  This was conducted as part of OSG’s ongoing Manufacturing Day programs to inspire and support the next generation of manufacturing personnel.

Students started the day hearing presentations about OSG and available career paths. Our HR Generalist, Paul Wilhelm, explained to the students that the retirement of baby boomers is opening up positions for the younger generations in manufacturing. However, it is also creating a skills gap between the skills manufacturers are losing but require and the skills younger people have. Today’s manufacturers require new personnel to have more expertise in manufacturing such as STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematic) skills at an earlier stage of their career to close this gap. 

The students also learned about OSG products through tooling demonstrations in our R&D center. Lukasz Gaca, Machining Applications Engineer at OSG, showed various OSG tools in action. Students also tried hand tapping in a block of aluminum to provide them with some hands on experience with tapping tools.

“One of the exciting things about manufacturing is to create something from raw material,” said Dan Jack Combs, a Harper College student. 

After the tooling demonstrations, the students were taken on a plant tour. They were able to see OSG’s manufacturing floor in action with more than 60 CNC machines and in-house coating vessels for patented OSG CVD Diamond and AlTiN/TiAlN coating.

“From this visit, I realized that modern manufacturing does require higher technical skills,” said Billy Tsiveriotis, a Harper College student.

Harper College’s manufacturing department focuses on career readiness using a combination of classroom theory and hands on training with state-of-the-art machines that students will likely to encounter in the industry.

“Our goal in the manufacturing program at Harper College is to improve the caliber of students coming out of the program and getting hired by manufactures,” said Aaron Kolb, an instructor of the Manufacturing Technology Program at Harper College. “Manufacturing has become a high-tech career path with many options, and we work hard to make sure our curriculum matches the needs of manufacturers.”

OSG’s production team is hopeful and excited about the future of manufacturing as they interacted with the student and experienced their motivation and interest in manufacturing.

“Some of the students asked me what constitutes the best employees,” said Chuck Abate, Plant Manager of the OSG Bensenville factory. “I stressed teamwork, integrity and ability to continually learn in addition to technical skills.”

In order to help students get additional experiences and prepare for their manufacturing career, OSG offers an internship program at the Bensenville factory.

1. Composites helmets

A new helmet made of composites, Half Cap, was introduced to Major League Baseball (MLB) for its 2016 Spring Training. Boombang, a company based out of Los Angeles, developed the Half Cap which is constructed with fiber composite, an advanced energy-absorbing impact layer, a foam liner and a breathable moisture-wicking cover. About 20 pitchers are trying out the new helmet during training camp.

Photo Credit: Composites Manufacturing

2. Storm proof house with composites

Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ won the 2015 Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon by designing and constructing “SURE HOUSE” to prevent damage from hurricanes. They incorporated shutters made of composites for “SURE HOUSE” which was the biggest challenge for them. Not only did the shutter have to be lightweight, but also easy to pull down and lock in case of a storm. Utilizing composite materials was their solution as they provide high strength while being lightweight.

Photo Credit: Composites Manufacturing

3. Composites could detect bombs

A new type of fiber composite was developed by the engineers at the University of Utah to make a portable scanner for detecting alkane vapor (an ingredient of gasoline, airplane fuel and a homemade bomb). According to them, the only thing available currently for detecting alkane is a large heavy device in a lab. In order to make the portable scanner, they developed a new type of fiber composite with two nanofibers that transfers electrons from one to the other, but when there is alkane, alkane adheres to the materials and prevents electrons to transfer between the materials. The newly developed composite materials will be utilized in the sensor array of the portable scanner.

Photo Credit: Composites Manufacturing

Sources:

http://compositesmanufacturingmagazine.com/2016/03/major-league-baseball-players-could-benefit-from-protective-composites/?utm_source=Real%20Magnet&utm_medium=Publication&utm_term=Industry%20Digest%20-%203/7/16&utm_content=Major%20League%20Baseball%20players%20use%20composites%20at%20Spring%20Training%202016!&utm_campaign=Industry%20Digest

http://compositesmanufacturingmagazine.com/2016/02/building-a-storm-proof-house-with-composites/

http://compositesmanufacturingmagazine.com/2016/04/utah-composite-material-detect-bombs/

Ever dream of machining composites without delamination and tool life issues? Composites are constructed with layers of material that are prone to delamination. They are also known to be abrasive and could easily wear your tool down. If your tool loses its sharpness, the material gets pushed away instead of cut, producing uncut fibers. OSG’s EXOPRO® AERO-BNC router overcomes these problems and even provides high feed roughing and a superior finish.

Reduced Delamination and Cutting Forces

The AERO-BNC router features OSG’s patented nick design and a high helix that breaks up the cutting edges. By breaking up composites with many cutting edges, instead of one long cutting edge, the nicked router can significantly reduce cutting forces. The lower the cutting forces, the less chance there is for delaminations and uncut fibers.

Longer Tool Life

The AERO-BNC also features OSG’s patented diamond coating which has a maximum diamond grain size diameter of 2μm. This ensures our coating is super smooth. Unlike our competition, we manufacture all diamond products in-house using our grinding technique on our special carbide substrate. This patented diamond coating coupled with the AERO-BNC router’s thick core diameter and multiple flutes extends tool life significantly. Improved part finish and sharper cutting edges are also the end results of the diamond coating.  

Versatility

The AERO-BNC is extremely versatile and can be applied in both thick and thin laminates. It is versatile enough to handle trimming, slotting and shoulder milling applications! It also can engage parts by plunging, ramping or helical entry and is available in various end cuts to enable you to find the right tool for your job.