Posted by Cayla Julius on | Comments Off on RAMAC invites RUSD to Visit Knapp/Air Logic

Local Counselors and Teachers Take on Racine Manufacturing Companies

This past Friday, Racine Area Manufacturers and Commerce (RAMAC) invited select groups of counselors and teachers from various Racine Unified School District schools to visit 4 select manufacturers in the Racine area. Knapp/Air Logic had the pleasure of hosting 4 fantastic education professionals:

  • Ian Harper works at REAL School as a counselor for 6th-8th graders, focused in Tech Ed
  • Brittany Medlin works at Park High School as a Freshman counselor
  • Wendy Farrell works at Park High School as a Freshman Seminar teacher
  • Megan Knudson works at Case High School as a Freshman and Business/Computer Science Pathway counselor

We were also joined by Jennifer Muffick, Regional Coordinator for the Youth Apprenticeship program through RAMAC. The YA programman gesturing with his hand as he speaks, next to a table with a ventilator on the table with the back/top panel removed to show inner components “integrates school-based and work-based learning to instruct students in employability and occupational skills”. Knapp Mfg. has been a part of the YA program since 1991. Director Paul Larson explained to our group how he started off in the program that very year and illustrated the fantastic experiences and learning opportunities that he gained not only in his own time completing the program, but also from the sequential Youth Apprentices. Knapp has had the pleasure of hosting over 40 apprentices since the start of its program through the Tool and Die Making department.

 

Paul, along with Jesse Helfenstein, another finisher of the YA program through Knapp and head of Automation, and Joe Kocjan, Toolroom Foreman, started off the afternoon by discussing the main areas of interest or concern our visitors had themselves or see from their students. A large area of focus is trying to find a way to show their students that there are alternative options to 4-year college plans and how to work around the negative connotation that can be tied to “manufacturing”. Discussions began surrounding the different options of pathways, comparing a 4-year college program to a 2-year program to a 5-year apprenticeship. While Knapp/Air Logic have no qualms at all with the 4-year college path, it is evident that more and more youth are migrating back away from that path and looking more towards sustainable trades.

 

How Small Companies Can Make Big Impacts

To help illustrate how Knapp has made an influence in not only the local community, but also on a larger scale, our team discussed the Ford Ventilator project, and the Corliss engine. The Ford Ventilator project is tied back to the start of COVID era, when thousands upon thousands of ventilators were needed to help the patients and victims of COVID. Due to the outdated design of the ventilator previously, Air Logic was one of the companies approached to make compliant components for the redesign. In the end, there were 16 parts in every ventilator made that were from Air Logic.

Our miniature Corliss engine was actually constructed by our founder, Fred Knapp. Not only is it a feat of work on behalf of our founder, it also is a helpful tool to showcase our flow control abilities. These visuals help provide an example to how employees at this company are all connected to a larger mission, and depicting how future students and apprentices can feel involved in the community at large through their work.

 

The Youth Apprenticeship Program TodayA collage of images depicting machines and molds within a manufacturing tooling department

After a brief history describing Knapp’s metal engraving history, such as carving the Lord’s Prayer on gold leaf the size of a pin point, and how that technology and knowledge translated over to tooling and machining, our group was introduced to Mike Christensen, one of our current Youth Apprentices. Mike has been a part of Knapp through the YA program for 3 years now. He discussed the types of projects he works on and how he has learned from Joe and other predecessors. He showed examples of the molds we use today, how our plastic components are produced from them, how various machines run to precisely carve out and form the exact components needed, and much more. It was a fantastic experience to see how the program has worked and impacted Knapp/Air Logic positively in real-time. We were also able to briefly meet with our latest apprentice, Daniel Duran from Park High School.

 

In Summary…

After finishing the tour through our Automation, Tool Room, Air Logic, JFILL, and Shipping department to illustrate the connection between departments and how tooling and automation is present in every aspect of Knapp and Air Logic, we came back together to discuss more on our visitors impressions, how they think this could relate back to their individual schools and students, any improvements they might suggest, and how Knapp/Air Logic can get more involved with RUSD. Overall, hopes and ambitions were high all around! All our visitors seemed to agree that they could envision which of their students would really excel in this manufacturing space and have a great interest in the YA program. They remarked that, “You can tell the company is invested in its employees, and the employees are invested in the company”. They hope to be able to bring in groups of students to visit the facility, which Jen remarked that RAMAC is working on plans to invite RUSD middle schoolers to come visit various manufacturers throughout the city, similar to the set up of the Friday events. We hope that Knapp and Air Logic will be able to host more education professionals and some students in the future to show off the excellence of manufacturing!

 

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