Carver Students Visit ARC Specialties

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Recently, more than 50 junior and senior Carver High School students in Eric Hirtriter’s computer integrated manufacturing classes visited ARC Specialties, a manufacturer of custom automatic and robotic equipment.

ARC Specialties is an expert in the development of fully automated manufacturing systems. The company is a vertically integrated manufacturing solution provider. ARC Specialties provides research, design, manufacturing, assembly and testing at a single location. In its 30 years, ARC Specialties has built machines for companies in 21 countries and many different industries. The staff includes project managers, mechanical and electrical designers as well as welders, electricians and assembly technicians who work as a team to take a project from concept to reality. The main goal at ARC Specialties is to design machinery that will provide manufacturing a high quality, high production and high profit operation.

The students learned how a typical project for ARC Specialties starts when a customer submits a manufacturing problem. Working with the customer, the staff will propose a solution. In some cases, a prototype of the system is needed before a complete proposal is possible. In the ARC Specialties lab, the staff have set up and developed everything from stereo lithography welding systems to race car camshaft welds. The ability to develop a process before a full-blown manufacturing system is built allows the team to improve on the final machine and shorten the delivery time to the customer.

ARC Specialties builds on three basic platforms: programmable logic controllers (PLCs), machine tool controller (CNC) and six axis robots. No one technology solves all manufacturing problems. Generally, ARC Specialties will choose PLCs, which are fast and reliable, if given a process problem. However, a CNC controller is used when the motion requirements exceed that of PLCs. When ARC Specialties is presented with a problem that requires six axes of motion, an articulated arm known as the ARC6 is used. The ARC6 robotic welding robot is one of the last remaining robots designed and built in the nation.

The Carver engineering students also learned about ARC Specialties’ Profile Mapping Tool (PMT), which was first unveiled in April 2010. PMT is a fully automated camera system and software package that scans the profile of clad pipe with a resolution of .001 inch (0.01 mm) and can detect defects that often go undetected in liquid penetrant testing.

“This was a great opportunity for students to gain a better understanding of the capabilities and scale of industrial robotics,” said Hirtriter. “They also learned from Dan Allford, president of ARC Specialties, about the many different types of workers such as engineers that make his company successful, which is one of the last manufacturing facilities of robotics in the U.S.”