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A Manufacturing Processes Laboratory: What Book-Making and Sheet-Metalworking have in Common

Abstract

Book publishing is a multi-billion dollar industry that usually does not have an adequate representation in manufacturing courses or textbooks. With technological advances in printing and copying, the process of making books became affordable even at a small scale. Thus, a book-making laboratory exercise is developed and implemented as a part of the Engineering of Manufacturing Processes course offered in industrial engineering and mechatronics engineering programs at Colorado State University - Pueblo. In one of the lab exercises, each student produces a softbound book of printed lecture notes for the course. This laboratory exercise is developed (1) to introduce students early in the Engineering of Manufacturing Processes course to the broader concepts and complexities of modern production targeting intuitive learners, (2) to facilitate active learning of book-making processes targeting sensing learners, and (3) to provide scaffolding by building on the book-making processes when analyzing other manufacturing processes. Based on student responses to an administered survey, it is confirmed that this laboratory presents an effective active learning tool. Furthermore, as indicated by students’ survey results in two consecutive years, significant improvements in this laboratory are achieved by introducing traditional manufacturing processes through the book-making processes. This exercise increases an appreciation for manufacturing topics, and helps students understand the complex nature of many production processes.

Introduction

While it is relatively easy to deliver a broad conceptual picture of the manufacturing processes in lectures, accomplishing this is somewhat more challenging in a laboratory environment. In previous years, a semester-long project incorporated a number of traditional manufacturing processes to produce a working device like a wind vane, a scale, or a desk lamp. However, it took a whole semester to build such a device; therefore, a “large picture” was not provided to the students at the beginning of the semester. Some of the engineering students are intuitive learners, i.e. they learn better when the subject is described and understood first in general terms and then later in necessary detail. The book-making exercise was designed to help intuitive learners.

For the past two years, during the first experiment in the Engineering of Manufacturing Processes course, each student created a softbound book of lecture notes for the course. First, students were introduced to book-making via a short lecture and a demonstration. Then, the course instructor provided printed lecture notes (bookcase) as well as the cardstock paper for the book cover. Finally, students were asked to make their own softbound books. They were encouraged to print their own color book covers using a color laser printer. After the printing, the book covers were laminated using a roll laminator, and then appropriately creased so to provide a perfect bind (a book that lays flat when opened).

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Jaksic, N., & Spencer, D. (2009, June), A Manufacturing Processes Laboratory: What Book Making And Sheet Metalworking Have In Common Paper presented at 2009 Annual Conference & Exposition, Austin, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--4548