Chethan Meda is an Application Engineering Intern at Hardinge. The applications group provides customers with custom support and process solutions to fit their needs in Turning, Milling and Grinding. Chethan’s summer internship wraps up on August 10th where he will return to Penn College for his Junior year studying manufacturing engineering.
Chethan has had the opportunity to work on several projects over the past few months, he highlights some of those here.
“I’ve had the pleasure to learn a lot about macro and plc programming on the Bridgeport XR1000 Milling machine during my internship which gives me the ability to develop timesaving automated processes. My main project during my time at Hardinge was developing a new automation system that you may get to see as a demo in the next few months. I also got to work on the American flag demo for the fourth of July which was a lot of fun!” Be sure to check that out here: https://youtu.be/0G_DYgAOceQ
In addition, Chethan was also asked to help design a custom trunnion that could be mounted to our Forkardt DD125 rotary. The automated workholding system can be mounted at 90 degrees adding 4 axis capability to any Bridgeport VMC. The custom trunnion allows a new automation system to load parts automatically via a solenoid air valve and allows for reliable, “lights out”, multi-sided machining. Additionally, the “spread open” design of our collets makes them well suited to automation because of their generous clearance while open.
The overall project took Chethan a little over a week to design and integrate a piston from our patented pneumatic collet block and to finish the machining process.
Chethan says “I enjoyed both the mentorship and the freedom I was given in applications, and I look forward to coming back to Hardinge during Christmas break and next summer.”
Want to learn more about how our dedicated team can offer solutions-based support for all of your application needs. Visit https://hardinge.com/applications/ to fill out a request support form and be sure to include your part print for us to assess.
