Above: The Downey High School, Striking Vikings robotics team with instructor Glenn Yamasaki (back row, left), Chris Fox, Tormach (back row, right), and Ben Belzer, TCI Precision Metals (back row, second from right)

May 8, 2019 - TCI Precision Metals, Gardena, California, in collaboration with the National Tooling and Machining Association and Tormach has donated a Tormach, PCNC 440 mill to the Downey High School, Striking Vikings robotics team. The new addition will help the team machine and fabricate their battlebot robots, which they enter into National Robotics League competitions.

The Downey High School robotics team is an after-school club made up of students enrolled in the schools innovative engineering workforce development program.  Lead by instructor Glenn Yamasaki, the program provides students with an introduction to engineering design, principles of engineering, aerospace engineering, and engineering physics.  “We are very happy to have been selected by TCI Precision Metals to receive the Tormach mill; it will allow our battlebot/robotics students to spend more time developing innovative ideas and less time improvising ways to complete their projects,” said Yamasaki.

In addition to the milling solution, TCI Precision Metals will support the Striking Vikings robotics program with Machine-Ready Blanks for their projects.  This will further reduce development times by allowing the students to begin milling with material that is machine-ready. “Just like our commercial customers, Machine-Ready Blanks will help the students get right to the high-value work of finish machining,” said Ben Belzer, President, and COO of TCI Precision Metals.  “It is great to see how engaged and inquisitive the students are; we want to continue to encourage this any way we can,” added Belzer.

The donation of the milling machine by TCI Precision Metals is part of a coordinated effort with the National Robotics League, a manufacturing workforce development program of the NTMA, designed to help students explore and consider manufacturing as a viable career option.  The program provides exciting, hands-on experiential STEM learning experiences through business/education partnerships that will spark interest and build the current and future workforce needed by the manufacturing industry.