On Thursday, April 23rd, the 31st annual observance of Materials/Manufacturing Week in Connecticut was held at the Yale Graduate Club in New Haven. Manufacturing Technology instructors, Mr. Tom Kenyon, and Mr. Angel Perez, along with students from the Manufacturing Department of Eli Whitney Technical High School were guests at this event. To connect with this event, Mr. Kenyon presented information on the variety of materials used in their daily manufacture. He also shared information pertaining to employment strategies and goals for the students.
Mr.
Perez, the department head, spoke about materials that were
donated for the belt buckle project and the Mastercam ® program currently being taught to the upperclassmen. Collectively, both instructors spoke highly about the ongoing involvement in which groups such as ASM American Society for Materials, NHMA New Haven Manufacturers Association, and CBIA Connecticut Business and Industry Association have shown in various ways to their manufacturing department. From the steps taken in the production of the belt buckle project to an actual set-up demo of fishing lure fly-tying, the students represented themselves very well as they interacted and answered questions posed to them by the assemblage. The students also offered six completed belt buckles that they made containing the NHMA logo, for the evening’s raffle.
The objective of this annual observance is to draw attention to the contribution of the materials manufacturing industries to the economy of the state. This observance began in 1978 as Metallurgy Week and at that time the site of the former Waterbury Brass Company was made a National Historical Metallurgical Landmark. This observance was founded through the efforts of the Southern Connecticut Chapter of the American Society for Materials and its past chairman Robert John Klancko. Recently the NHMA has become a full partner in this endeavor. At the 31st Annual Meeting, Dr. Alexis Sommers of the University of New Haven was the featured speaker. His topic was on Forensic Evaluations of Materials Failures. |
