CULLOWHEE – When the product designers at the Snap-on plant in Murphy, NC, need a full-size prototype of a new power tool, they don’t have to venture far. The students and faculty at Western Carolina University’s Center for Rapid Product Realization can have a 3D-printed model delivered within a day or two.

“We use Western all the time to make 3D models during the design phase, so we can actually hold them in our hands and see what the tool is going to feel like,” said Matthew Patterson, a Snap-on product engineer with a degree from NC State. “There are things you just can’t tell from a computer simulation, and it’s great to be able to put a model in a customer’s hand, put it under the hood of a car or a truck, and see how it feels.”

That kind of quick turnaround helps the Murphy plant churn out more than $100 million a year in high-quality tools, a major boon for Western North Carolina manufacturing.

WCU’s Rapid Center was tailor-made to help regional manufacturers thrive and to help students find their way to specialized, well-paying jobs in core American industries. Led by Patrick Gardner, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel with a background in military R&D, the Center relies on project-based learning to help students tackle real-world design challenges.

“It’s a really cool formula,” Gardner said. “We work directly with regional industries to design solutions.”

Each semester, student teams are partnered with a regional company to help identify and solve a particular manufacturing or product challenge. That can mean anything from a more efficient loading dock to creative use of 3D printing to solve an assembly line bottleneck.

For undergraduates in the Kimmel School of Construction Management and Technology, where the Rapid Center is housed, the projects offer both valuable experience and direct connections to potential employers. Industry partners have included global firms like General Dynamics and Caterpillar, as well as local companies like MicroAudiometrics and Elk Products.

At Moog Components Group, which manufactures precision motors for aerospace projects, medical devices, and other high-stress environments, WCU students worked with senior engineers to design quicker methods for quality testing.

“We gave them a little bit of direction, then let them run with it,” said Stephen Caldwell, a senior manufacturing engineer at Moog. “They came up with some pretty creative stuff.”

For Gardner, giving students room to be creative is one of the core strengths of the Rapid Center. They have the chance to learn and experiment on some of the most advanced industrial equipment available, including large 3D printers, virtual design labs, and laser micromachining drills. [1]

“We provide a real value for this region,” Gardner said. “We serve everyone from large companies to lone inventors, looking to see if they’ve got the next breakthrough idea.”