Incorporating a flexible manufacturing system into a design course

The Associate Degree in Mechanical Engineering Technology program as offered by Penn State University requires a series of three courses in industrial engineering technology. The educational objectives of these courses are to provide students an understanding of fundamental concepts in manufacturing, materials processing, and production design. To promote a working knowledge of production design students are required to take an accompanying course production design laboratory. During the pre-bench top era this laboratory course was offered during a summer session at the end of the freshman year. This format provided students with a common laboratory experience. However, the summer laboratory experience lacked the capacity to correlate lecture materials with actual laboratory exercises. This disjoint provided stimulus for change, and change did occur in the form of two concurrent course offerings. In response to these changes each campus location of Penn State University offering the associate degree in mechanical engineering technology was required to procure equipment for these course offerings. In conjunction with a grant received from The Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), donor contributions, state vocational money, and matching funds from the local campus administration bench top equipment was purchased. The equipment included a CNC milling machine, a CNC lathe, a conveyor belt, gravity feeder, and a linear slide base mounted six axis robot This paper documents how the bench top equipment was arranged into a flexible manufacturing system, integrated into the laboratory course, and used for a robotics competition sponsored by SME.