ABB Robotics Training Lab Opens at Vincennes University

ABB Robotics (Cary, NC) and Vincennes University (VU) (Vincennes, IN) will host an Open House on October 27th, 2010 to celebrate the grand opening of the ABB Robotics training lab at VU's $9 million industrial training facility, the Indiana Center for Applied Technology (ICAT). The event will be the official opening of the training lab, a partnership formed between ABB and VU in the fall of 2009 to greatly enhance VU's vocational and technical robotic training, and provide ABB with an authorized training facility in the central Midwest.

The Open House is from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm EDT, and will include a short presentation, robotic demonstrations and tours of the ICAT, which is also home to the Haas Technical Education Center. The event is open to all parties interested in learning more about VU and its industrial robotic and advanced manufacturing training. The ICAT opened in March 2009 and is considered one of the top workforce development and college level manufacturing training centers in the United States.

The ABB Robotics training lab features 29 ABB robots and related work cells, software and controllers, and will allow students to gain training in applications that include robotic welding and plasma cutting; picking, packing and palletizing; machine tending, material handling and product
assembly; and advanced vision related programming. The first training class in the new lab is "IRC5 Basic Programming (US420)", an introductory robotic programming course beginning at 9:00 am on November 8th and concluding at noon on Friday, November 12th. It is currently open for registration.

"Industry and education must work together to provide the best trained and most skilled workforce to reach the next level of productivity and profitability in advanced manufacturing companies," said Mike Richards, VU director of business and industry training. "Industrial robots are now being installed in a wide range of industries and the demand for robotic training has never been higher. The partnership between ABB and VU is one of the best I have seen."

VU offers a two-year associate degree in Computer Integrated Manufacturing & Robotics, and a series of robotic training courses in its Workforce Development program. "The new robotics lab will offer robotic programming at the introductory and advanced levels, and is open to qualified VU degree students, incumbent workers and others seeking to increase their skills," added Richards.

"The ABB Robotics training lab at Vincennes is truly a collaborative effort, the result of great vision and very thorough planning on the part of both the school and ABB," said Joe Campbell, vice president of the ABB Robot Products Group in the United States. "It will provide the best available robotic training in Indiana and the Midwest, and it gives us an ideal model for establishing similar relationships in other regions."

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www.vinu.edu/businessandindustry

www.abb.com