COMPANY PARTNERSHIP GIVES STUDENTS REAL-WORLD EXPERIENCE April 16, 2003 It isn’t unusual for Kansas State University-Salina students to get hands-on experience with industry before the graduate. In fact, it’s a requirement. For example, all mechanical engineering technology students are required to take a senior design project class, where teams of students work on real-world problems posed by local and regional companies. These projects have included everything from redesigning a piece of pizza manufacturing machinery to cut down on waste to working with a hospital to improve the technology for a hip replacement procedure. A recent project was for a Salina-based company, Premier Pneumatics, which specializes in pneumatic conveying systems and their components, such as hoppers, receivers, rail-unloaders, loaders, airlocks and the electronic control equipment needed for automation. Premier works with customers – including the likes of Kimberly Clark, Dow, Rubbermaid and Dial – to custom-build equipment for the type of material being conveyed. Craig Newcomer was one of the students who worked on the project. The challenge given to him and his three teammates by Premier Pneumatics was to come up with a solution to a problem with a valve that often lost its airtight seal due to conditions that allowed powder and dust to interfere with the valve. “ For certain industries, like food processing” Newcomer said, “there are strict regulations about cleanliness. Or for industries where they are moving toxic materials, they want to make sure that none of those materials are leaked into the air where their workers could be harmed. So we fabricated two original designs and tested them against the existing design to determine the best solution.” Shawn Clemmer, a K-State at Salina graduate, and now a system design engineer at Premier was a company liaison with the student team. In his experience at Premier, he has found that working with student groups can add a lot of value to the design process. “ It helps Premier get kind of an outside perspective at times, to get fresh ideas,” he said. “It allows us to relieve some of our engineering time where the students can spend some time doing design work and testing.” Clemmer, who worked on a senior design project when he was a student, said that these types of projects can be an important learning experience for students. “ I think it’s important for them to see the real-life problems that a company goes through – the circumstances and limitations a company deals with,” he said. “In the real world, for example, cost often becomes a big limitation on design.” Clemmer added that the relationship between Premier and K-State at Salina is a win-win situation. “ I think using student projects is good for any company, as well as for K-State,” he said. |