Manufacturing engineering technician students delivered a new wire tensioner they built to a Perth manufacturer March 25.
As a manufacturer of wire and wire products internationally, CWI has a lengthy list of goods ranging from instrument strings to medical staples.
During production, the process of drawing wire through dies to reduce its diameter, causes wear to the diamond surface inside the dies that needs to be repaired over time.
Machines used to resurface the dies require a great deal of force to change the assembly each time a new die is needed. The tensioner designed and built by the program will assist CWI employees by reducing the force and time needed for the transitions.
“It saves 15 minutes of turnaround time per set-up,” program instructor Rick Lacelle said, “and it takes one person rather than two.”
The design was so well received by CWI that Lacelle was encouraged to patent the idea. With the same machinery being used by many other manufacturers the possibility for expansion is promising.
“I think it’s a very valuable program they have,” said Pal From, president and CEO of CWI. “We can’t find the people that have this foundation.”
The collaboration began as a result of an advisory meeting discussing the need for new projects from industry, Lacelle had the brainstorm idea of teaming the program and industries needing help developing ideas.
“By the end of the meeting we had five projects,” Lacelle said.
As part of the students’ curriculum, they were set up with local companies such as CWI who had project ideas but no time or resources to complete.