Industry 4.0, also known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, is characterized by smart technologies and automation. As manufacturing jobs transform, engineers and machinists will likely work together using integrated software solutions to design and manufacture products. A strong partnership between engineers and machinists can prevent inefficiencies and unnecessary costs.
For the fall 2024 semester, Mechanical Engineering Assistant Professor Andrew Gross established a collaboration with Midlands Technical College (MTC) in Columbia so one of his undergraduate classes could work with future machinists on design and production.
The collaboration began when Molinaroli College of Engineering and Computing Dean Hossein Haj-Hariri arranged a meeting between the college and MTC, which was instrumental in connecting Gross to faculty and administration.
“I wanted to enhance project-based learning in my classroom with a physical prototype built from the structural analysis performed by our engineering students,” Gross says. “When our engineering students enter the workforce, they will not manufacture their own designs, so the dean suggested a partnership with Midlands Tech. This let our students see their designs come to life, while also mirroring real world interactions between engineers and machinists.”
Gross eventually met Gary Shannon, director of MTC’s machine tool technology program and was confident that their program was complimentary to his class.
Aerospace and mechanical engineering juniors and seniors in Gross’s finite element stress analysis course were divided into groups of three and responsible for designing a beam structure that met specific requirements, including structural performance and weight limits, with the goal of minimizing production costs. MTC students further analyzed the designs to provide manufacturability feedback and a manufacturing cost analysis. University of South Carolina students used the feedback and cost analysis to improve their designs before MTC students manufactured the final designs from aerospace grade aluminum.
“My class focuses on finite element analysis, which predicts the behavior of components once they are put into service. It's a class focused on theory and computation that has never had a lab component, but experimental validation of these simulations is an essential part of engineering design and a powerful learning opportunity for our students,” Gross says.
Each group at USC was partnered with an MTC student, who fabricated their designs using standard metalworking equipment such as CNC mill, band saws and drill presses. According to Gross, there were complimentary aspects between his class and MTC’s machine tool technology program.
“Our students are the customers for Midlands Tech students, which gives both sides a chance to work on professional communication and learn to speak each other's technical languages,” Gross says. “It has also been good for my students to prepare designs and drawings so a machinist can manufacture it. There’s always design details that only come up when bringing a component out of the computer model and onto the machine shop floor.”
Another complimentary aspect is predicting the costs of fabricating designs. MTC students shared a design for manufacturability and cost analysis with each group.
“It’s useful for our engineering students to use - costing information to drive the design process, especially when that feedback comes from machinists who can also suggest design tweaks to lower manufacturing costs,” Gross says.
Gross’s class visited MTC in September to view the manufacturing facility where the design ideas were constructed. On December 2, MTC students joined Gross’s class in his lab for the experimental validation of engineering analysis on the 12 different beams.
“The mechanical testing went beyond determining whether the design requirements were met. We also looked at the ultimate load that these beams could carry, which is the point at which the structure will not carry any more load and reveals its mode of failure,” Gross says. “We also included advanced metrology with the validation experiments, conducting digital image correlation. This experimental technique was pioneered at USC and is now used across the globe.”
Junior Shree Ghosh said that seeing the manufacturing side firsthand provided valuable insight into how machinists take an engineer’s design to help bring it to life.
“My team and I could tweak our design, proposal, and presentation to our Midlands Tech partner to create smoother communication and ensure that our design was created successfully,” Ghosh says. “It also helped to see the setup in real life to understand the differences between simulations and the real world since we must consider boundary conditions, material properties, and tolerances.”
Gross says that this semester’s collaboration with MTC has been successful, and he hopes it continues. While he believes the results have enhanced student learning because it involved a physical test, it also gave his students insight into possible scenarios in their careers.
“There will be design review boards, where machinists and other engineers are involved to analyze a design before it's approved for production,” Gross says. “It gives our students that experience of working with a machinist to analyze their design before they might be in an intimidating environment in the future.”