There was new equipment purchased for 57 Ontario high schools last year thanks to the efforts of CTMA and OCTE. PHOTO courtesy CTMA.
The Canadian Tooling & Machining Association’s efforts to modernize shop classes across Ontario with new equipment are paying off, CTMA executive director Robert Cattle says, and the proof is the dozens of high schools now equipped with new technology across the province.
CTMA first partnered with the Ontario Council for Technology Education three years ago to purchase and install high-tech equipment in high schools.
“We all know that the majority of equipment in machine shop classes in our high schools are old, used, dated and in need of replacement. I remember visiting a high school in Windsor and when I was greeted, the gentlemen said, ‘Not only am I the machine shop teacher, I am also the museum curator,’” Cattle said during a recent CTMA meeting held at the Canadian Warplane Museum.
Yet working alongside the Ontario Council for Technology Education CTMA was able to purchase equipment for 57 Ontario high schools last year.
“These schools were from both the public and catholic school boards and were located from Sault Ste Marie to Thunder Bay to Ottawa, through Kingston, the GTA, KW/Guelph/London, Windsor and everywhere in between,” Cattle, who spent 37 years machining precision components and eventually owning MicroMetric, prior to taking over as head of CTMA.
Cattle also outlined the list of equipment purchased for high schools:
“What did we buy? Haas Mini Mills, Tormach three axis vertical CNC machines with tool changers, desktop mills, CNC lathes, new manual mills and lathes with digital readouts and we also supplied each school with digital vernier calipers, micrometers, indicators, clamping kits, consumable items like solid carbide cutters. In essence, what you would expect to see on today’s shop floors,” Cattle said.
