Modern Machine Shop
“Machine Distributor, High School Work to Address Skills Gap” — Matt Danford on the five-year partnership and what each side gets from it.
Essex Technical High School · Danvers, Massachusetts
Compumachine Technology Center
In November 2014 Compumachine equipped the machine shop at the new Essex Technical High School with more than twenty CNC and manual machine tools, and put its name on the door.
Essex Technical High School opened in the autumn of 2014 on 166 acres in Hathorne, Massachusetts — a $133 million campus and one of the largest investments in vocational education the state had made. Its advanced manufacturing shop needed machines that matched what students would find in a working job shop. Compumachine supplied them.
What went in
The shop was fitted out with the same equipment New England shops were buying from us at the time: Hyundai WIA vertical machining centres and CNC turning centres, a Hanwha Swiss-type lathe, and a row of Victor manual lathes and mills for the fundamentals. Alongside the machines came a CAD/CAM room and FANUC CNC control simulators, so students could learn programming and control operation on the same systems used on the floor.
The space was named the Compumachine Technology Center under a five-year, renewable partnership. The school got current technology and ongoing support for it. Compumachine got a place to host customers, run adult certification evenings and hold its open house. Local manufacturers got a pipeline of students who had already run the machines they would be hired onto.
The opening
Superintendent Dan O’Connell cut the ribbon on November 20, 2014, with George Harvey, Chairman of Essex North Shore Agricultural and Technical High School, I.C. Lee, President of Hyundai WIA Machine America, and Mark Summers, President of Mastercam, alongside Dave Shaby of Compumachine. Nearly a hundred area shops came. The Culinary Arts students catered.
Why it mattered
The skills gap in machining is not abstract on the North Shore. Aero Manufacturing, Prattville Machine, MK Services, Tool Technology, Salem Metal Fabrications and other local shops backed the centre because they needed the graduates. Students who trained there could continue at North Shore Community College, or go straight to work. The two trade-press pieces below tell the story as it was reported at the time.
As seen in
The trade press covered the opening.
Both pieces ran in February 2015. Download the pages as they were printed.
Manufacturing News
“Compumachine Technology Center Grand Opening at Essex Technical High School” — the ribbon cutting, the machine list and who was there.
Photos
Inside the Technology Center.
34 photographs from the shop and the opening. Click any to see it full size.
From local industry
What the shops said.
“My son attends Aggie and is in his senior year, so this past Saturday we parents were given the school tour by our kids, and I never expected my son to ask if I'd like to see the machine tool tech department. David, what you have done for this industry by your involvement with the school is amazing. I am so impressed and humbled by your generosity and commitment to our industry. Hopefully others will join the parade you started.”
“Look at that shop — not like our Davies but more like Diamond. Rhode Island needs to take a lead from what Mass has done and put some money behind this effort.”
“We need to have more schools like this geared toward the machining trade. My hat is off to Compumachine for partnering with Essex Vo-Tech. Great job.”