AFIT Model Shop is one-of-a-kind

  • Published
  • By Bill Hancock
  • 88th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, --  Who do you call when you need a sturdy satellite simulator designed to float simulated satellites on a cushion of air? Or maybe you need to cut a microscopic channel into an ultra-expensive composite material that cannot be touched by human hands? Perhaps a special design and construction destined to be a payload experiment for a rocket launch into space? These and other wildly obscure requirements of Air Force Institute of Technology students working on their thesis research projects could be a real dilemma.

Luckily, students have a special place to go that can fabricate an idea into a reality.

The AFIT Model Fabrication Shop has been turning out student thesis design products since 1964. Located in the decommissioned nuclear reactor, Building 471, in Area B, the AFIT Model Fabrication shop builds one-of-a-kind products, on a tight budget and under tight deadlines. Supporting anywhere from 250 to 280 sponsored research projects of AFIT students annually, the shop is challenged daily with projects that can range from drilling a series of holes the width of a human hair into a rare composite material, to helping design and build the AFIT LEO iMESA (Integrated Miniaturized Electrostatic Analyzer) CNT (Carbon Nano-Tube) Experiment (ALICE), a nanosatellite platform to test technologies in orbit.

"We have always been a very valuable commodity to our students," said Brian Crabtree, chief of the AFIT Model Shop. "The type of products and services we offer are very, very expensive outside the fence. Not to mention the time constraints of meeting a thesis deadline. By re-purposing, and simplifying, we keep our costs down. Our motto has always been nothing is un-machine-able."

To develop the AFIT vision of internationally recognized leaders for defense-focused technical graduate and continuing education, research, and consultation, AFIT students propose research topics that are often of great interest to the Air Force and beyond. AFIT distinguished graduates are well known pioneers of technology and science (ex. Dr. Edward "Tom" Curran, Dr. Vincent Russo, Gen. Charles Holland, to name but a few). Their ideas and inspirations were probably rooted in an idea brought to life in the AFIT Model Shop.

"We are model makers who take a concept and deliver back a tangible working product," said Dan Ryan, AFIT Model Maker. "On Monday a student will bring in a napkin with a design scribbled on it; by Wednesday we have a prototype; Friday the student is gathering data from the device. We take great pride in that there are only three of us within the shop and no old wizard dispensing wisdom. We often spend our lunches arguing and debating ideas on ways to help students overcome a problem."
Primarily of benefit to students studying within the institute's Aero/Astro and Physics study programs, the shop also supports the laboratories within the schoolhouse. From raw materials to finished products the AFIT Model Shop is often tasked to fabricate items whose design resides only within the mind of the inventor.

Because the model makers are called upon to deliver products of a wide diversity and composition, their workspace is outfitted with all the accoutrements of a customary machine/fabrication shop. Lathes, welders, cutting and drilling machinery are available, but, because student research can run the gamut of materials and requirements, the shop also has various state-of-the-art tools, that include: a 5-dimension water-jet cutting table, various Computer Numerical Control machining/fabrication equipment, not to mention the model maker's experience to take a student's idea from a rough design to completed working assembly.

"It is never the same from day-to-day. One moment we work with wood, then metal, then plastics, whatever material is called for," states Chris Harkless, AFIT Model Maker. "We are always doing something new. Trying something that has never been done before, making our equipment do, what ordinarily, it does not do. Improving or re-purposing products to suit student's needs and save money in the process. It's always challenging and rewarding. I love my job."