Research Shop
Instrumentation Design, Engineering & Production
Located in the Technological Institute, the Research Shop consists of three elements for providing services to the Research community:
The Design & Engineering Shop has a professional engineering and fabrication staff providing design and engineering services that include brainstorming, design and engineering consulting, CAD and CAM consulting (no fee); developing and engineering design services (fee basis); fabrication specification drawing development (fee basis).
The Professional Shop is a machine shop staffed by professional machinists for machining and fabricating components and assemblies of instruments on a fee-basis. Besides traditional machining tools, there is access to laser & waterjet cutting and 3D printing in plastics and metal.
The Student Shop is a maker and consulting space where users can fabricate and build their own projects. Professional engineering and fabrication consulting is available during business hours. Access is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week provided safety requirements are met. Trained safety monitors are provided during some of these hours; accompaniment by a trained buddy is required during others. Classes in machine shop tools usage and shop safety are offered for no-cost. Access to the student shop will begin June 1st, 2017.
Available Equipment & Services
Design & Engineering Shop
- Design and Engineering consultation
- Design and Engineering services (fee-basis)
- Materials selection consultation
- CAD & CAM consultation
- CAD & CAM training
- CAD & CAM services (fee-basis)
- Fabrication consultation
Professional Shop
- CNC and manual milling
- CNC and manual turning (lathe)
- Drilling, boring, threading
- Surface grinding
- Wire and ram EDM (electrical discharge machining)
- Laser & waterjet cutting (tba)
- 3D printing (tba)
- TIG welding (vacuum applications)
- Orbital welding (VCR fittings)
- Helium mass spectrometer leak detection
- Stick, spot, gas welding and brazing
- Precision sheet metal fabrication
- Woodworking
- Glassblowing (Off-site non-NU vendor)
Student Shop
- Conversational 3-axis mill
- Conversational 2-axis mill
- Conversational 3-axis mill
- Super precision lathes
- Laser cutter (tba)
- Grinders
- Drill presses
- Work space and in-process project storage
- Design & Engineering consultation
- Materials selection consultation
- CAD consultation
- Fabrication drawing consultation
- Fabrication consultation
- Shop safety and machine use training
- Off-hour use safety and responsibilities training
- CAD training
Training
All student users of the Student Shop are required to take an introductory safety orientation, in order to be granted access to the lab. Once completed, students are granted general access to the shop, basic hand tools and assembly areas.
To utilize a piece of equipment not covered during the safety orientation (mills, drill press, laser cutter…), training must be completed before solo-use is permitted. All non-course based training is coordinated through the shop professional staff.
Location
Northwestern Technological Institute
2145 Sheridan Road
Evanston, Il, 60208
Ground Floor, N Wing, NG-40