Torchmate® Technology Impacts Students’ Futures at
Brookings-Harbor High School

Brookings-Harbor High School is a public high school located in Brookings, Oregon. They are seeing noticeably increasing growth and interest in their Career Technical Education Program since the addition of the Torchmate 4400 CNC cutting table to their classroom. CTE teacher, Arnold Wardwell speaks out about how much Torchmate technology has impacted the program as well as the students learning.

IMPACT ON STUDENT’S LEARNING

Brookings-Harbor High school has had their Torchmate table for four months and has seen a substantial impact on students learning, according to teacher Arnold Wardwell. “It adds so much speed and efficiency to the process. We took on a small project for a farmer to build some custom parts. We created vectors of the pieces in a matter of minutes. A local machinist he had taken the same project to in his hometown said it would take at least 13 hours. A CNC table is a great tool for students to become familiar with if they are interested in being a machinist.” In addition to custom parts, Wardwell stated that his students enjoy creating projects such as art pieces and fire pits.

IMPACT ON PROGRAM GROWTH

Brookings-Harbor High school is also noticing growth in the Career Technical Education Program since the introduction of their Torchmate 4400. “A lot more kids are interested in using it. The coolest thing that we use it for is the touch-screen programming, and it came with an update for our CAD (Computer Aided Design) software. We can create designs and easily transfer to the table with a thumb drive.”

BENEFITS AND ADVANTAGES

Wardwell emphasizes the convenience of the Torchmate CAD software by saying, “We now have a machine that creates a direct link to our CAD Lab.” Students can now “bring their CAD projects to life,” something they were incapable of without Torchmate technology. Wardwell is confident that his
students have an advantage by having access to technology such as a Torchmate CNC table saying, “Every other week I am seeing information in the national news and from professional associations such as the American Welding Society about the demand for skilled employees that can use this type of equipment.” When asked if he thinks that technology such as CNC tables is beneficial in a school setting he clearly stated, “Yes.” Wardwell went on to explain “I think CNC tables are very beneficial in high school. My Number One reason: If a student can successfully make projects from start to finish, then they can get out into the workforce and get above  minimum-wage jobs right away.”

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