Innovative Work-Holding Tool Designs for Enhanced Safety and Learning in Manufacturing Labs

Manufacturing processes laboratory is one of the fundamental hands-on courses that mechanical engineering and mechanical engineering technology students are required to take in their first semester.The main purpose of this course is to introduce the mechanical engineering technology student to the principles and operation of mechanical equipment such as lathes, drill presses, milling machines and measuring instruments.Individual laboratory projects are typically assigned to each student to reinforce the topics covered in the theory.For example, throughout these projects, students will be able to use a lathe along with proper machining procedures to manufacture mechanical components.Operator safety is the top priority when working with a lathe.There have been instances of fatal lab incidents working with the lathe [1].Therefore, any method to increase the operator safety is desirable.This paper demonstrates designing a novel work-holding tool to be used during lathe turning operations.The device, which is called the Integrated Faceplate Dog (I.F.D.), eliminates the need for using the traditional work-holding accessory on a lathe (a faceplate and lathe dog).As a result, students working with lathes will experience not only safer workflow, but also much smoother workflow, with the final manufactured part's quality enhanced and setup time reduced.Overall, there are numerous educational outcomes as well: students will be able to produce better quality components in a shorter period of time.