“Most people don’t realize that large universities have five or even ten machine shops throughout their campus. Some are education centers where students are trained on machinery. Other shops work for the university or even lend themselves outside of the university.” This insight was shared by our valued distribution partner, Gary Kinkela, President of Kinkade Inc. when he was discussing his recent installation of two Acu-Rite Solutions products at the University of Pittsburgh.

Gary visited the University of Pittsburgh to meet with familiar faces and discuss their machine shop needs candidly. It became apparent that one of the shops faced challenges with its current equipment, particularly with a bed mill that featured an out-of-date control system. “The previous setup was old. It was aging technology. Parts could not be replaced, and the capabilities just weren’t there,” shared the shop manager, Shawn Artman.

Shawn’s machine shop supports the unique machining and assembly requirements for the University’s Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences. He elaborated, “We support the labs and research teams. We’ve built parts to support research for Quantum Physics and, we’ve created equipment for the Geology department to study frogs and fish underwater. Anything the school needs to be fixed or built, we do it.”

After their initial shop walkthrough, Gary recommended replacing their legacy bed mill control with the MILLPWRG2 . The MILLPWRG2  is a powerful yet easy-to-operate CNC retrofit system for knee mills and bed mills. The MILLPWRG2  offers faster set-ups, shorter run times, and a major boost in productivity.

hen asked why Shawn and his team selected Acu-Rite Solutions for their shop upgrade, he said, “Most of the team has worked on Acu-Rite Solutions at some point in their career. It’s a reputable brand. And when compared with the old control, Acu-Rite Solutions is just a better overall system to operate and program.” He also shared, “I am a big proponent of customer service, and the quality and support that Gary was showing us made us want to go that route.”

In addition to the MILLPWRG2 upgrade at the Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences research machine shop, the University also completed a standard Acu-Rite Solutions retrofit on a knee mill machine for one of the student machine shops. “The students seem to catch on to it really quick. It’s easy for us to teach as well,” said Shawn.

Acu-Rite Solutions is proud to support the application and educational machine shops at the University of Pittsburgh.

Acu-Rite Solutions is dedicated to the advancement of machining in the education sector. A part of that commitment includes Acu-Rite Solutions official School Discount Program. This program provides deep discounts on select control and DRO packages to all schools with precision metalworking and vocational programs. Many other schools have incorporated ACU-RITE products in their machine shops, including:

Contact us for more information about Acu-Rite Solutions products, to get connected with your local Acu-Rite Solutions distributor, or for additional details regarding the School Discount Program.