The Southeastern Institute of Manufacturing & Technology Opens in Florence County

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Florence-Darlington Technical College unveiled it's newest addition to the community Tuesday. The Southeastern Institute of Manufacturing and Technology is now up and running on the school's campus.  The institute will support high tech manufacturing, and features areas such as a virtual reality center, and a training station for robotics.

Officials at the institute hope it will attract more manufacturing business into the area, and will serve as a state-of-the-art learning center for students.

"What we really intend for this facility to be, is a first class support system for high tech manufacturing that we hope to attract to the Pee Dee...and for the high tech manufacturing already here in the Pee Dee," said Florence-Darlington Technical College President, Dr. Charles Gould.

The Advanced Manufacturing Center, a two-story, 177,000-square-foot advanced manufacturing training facility, will house the Interactive Digital Center, the college’s Engineering Technology Department and the National Robotics Training Center of Excellence.

The college has partnered with EON Reality Inc., an interactive visual content management software provider, to offer 3D visualization through the institute’s Interactive Digital Center — a first in the state.
The robotics center will develop training courses to teach robot maintenance technicians for the military.

The AMC’s centerpiece is an 18,000-square-foot manufacturing arena, where machine tool technology students and faculty are training already.
The facility features technical labs, classrooms, a conference center and an 800-seat auditorium. It will enable local and regional companies to train employees on state-of-the-art equipment, and will give engineering and machine tool technology students a chance to work with equipment the college has been unable to provide before the institute’s opening.

“The facility will be available for special training sessions, sales meetings or equipment demonstrations,” Roach said. “We believe this is a one-of-a-kind facility in the country.”
Phase 2 of the SiMT is made up of the Industrial Environmental Training Center, the Business Excellence Center, the Industrial Research and Development Center, and the Manufacturing Incubator Center. Phase 3 is the Health and Safety Training Center and the Chemical and Biotechnology Center.