Rhodes State College serves ten counties in the Lima, Ohio area by providing regional industries with skilled technicians. One of its major academic divisions, the Division of Information Technology and Engineering Technology, has a reputation for graduating associates degree-level technicians who have become a major resource for area manufacturers and machine shops.
As with any educational institution, it is a challenge to keep equipment current on a limited budget. Roger Newhouse, Chair of the Mechanical Engineering Technology Department, faced this reality when it came to replacing a 1970’s-era 600,000 lb Unitech universal testing machine.
Newhouse asked Lab Technician, Jack Hill, to find a replacement. Hill researched machines on the Internet and sent email inquiries. Commenting on the process, Newhouse remarked, “Quite frankly, most companies were not too interested in getting back in touch with us. The nice thing about ADMET is that they treated us respectfully.”
They ordered a 10,000 lb ADMET eXpert 2613 tabletop machine equipped with MTESTQuattro Materials Testing System software. Since Newhouse already had an extensometer, he sent it to ADMET along with the computer that they would be using. “They set up the machine and loaded everything on our computer. We have been very happy with the service,” he said.
The new ADMET machine is now used in Materials and Mechanical Engineering Technology classes by civil, manufacturing, mechanical and quality students to conduct tensile and compression (beam) testing. Teams of two or three students test aluminum, brass, steel or other materials using 6mm threaded samples for the tensile tests.
“MTESTQuattro has a huge pull-down of preloaded tests. I let them choose whatever they want. Some of them pick a lot of stuff that they don’t need. Then, when they try to calculate it on their own, they say, ‘I didn’t need that’. It’s the best way for them to learn,” he said.
