WNC machine tool program technology upgraded

Western Nevada College’s machine tool technology department received a couple of gifts from area manufacturers to benefit students.

Micromanipulator donated a Haas Automation VF3 machine and a CMM machine to WNC Foundation, while American International Tooling has provided a tooling donation.

“This is a big deal,” said WNC’s Professional and Applied Technology Director Eric York. “The VF3 from Micromanipulator is a high-quality CNC mill with significantly updated capacity to teach today's skills; it will be a big boost to Ron Beller’s machine tool program.”

Beller said the donated CNC mill allows the program to update an older model in the shop.

“The old CNC was from the ‘80s, as it was a tape reader machine. It was older technology and weaker than the two VF2 machines in the shop,” Beller said. “This brings us to three currently used machines. Haas has machines all over the world, except North Korea, Iran and Russia.”

York indicated new VF3 machines start at $82,000 and the Micromanipulator donation has a fair market value of up to $18,000. Micromanipulator also donated the cost of delivering the machines.

Micromanipulator also donated a coordinate measuring machine to the shop. It is a device that specifically measures the geometry of physical objects by sensing discrete points on the surface.

“It is still in use by aerospace and other highly technical companies,” Beller said. “The newer ones are programmable and very expensive.”

For information about the MTT program, email ronald.beller@wnc.edu.