Cambrian College has unveiled a $940,000 trades training circuit that will give industrial mechanical millwright students a hands-on learning experience.

The material handling circuit gives students the opportunity to install, troubleshoot, repair, and maintain industrial equipment typically found in the mining, refining, forestry and manufacturing sectors. Located outside of the trades building, the new equipment will also offer students in other trades training programs an enhanced hands-on experience.

Millwright professor Daryl Park said the circuit “is unique among Canadian colleges because it processes real material like wood shavings, gravel, or ore in a closed loop.”

Park and other professors have been working closely with students on the circuit, and he said the new equipment “exposes them to diverse scenarios involving a variety of elevators, conveyors, feeders, and crushers. They’re also gaining experience working on these pieces of machinery outdoors, which adds an extra dimension to the job because weather conditions affect how the machines work, and how they are repaired.”

Students in the welding and fabrication program helped build components of the circuit.

Program co-ordinator Robbie Duncan said its 40-foot conveyor was fabricated by welding students approximately 10 years ago, and the catch pans underneath it were made last year.

“The walkways, platforms, ladders and handrails were all welded and fabricated by our students,” Duncan explained. “Chutes were fabricated and welded by both welding and fabrication and millwright students.”