With the grand opening of Northern College's “3D Evolutions: Futures Printing Lab” earlier this summer, the Timmins-based institution took a significant step forward in bolstering its technology and innovation-based class offerings.
Equipped with a diverse range of cutting-edge 3D printers, the lab offers students as well as industry partners access to modern, efficient, and practical manufacturing, testing, and prototyping methods. The lab can be used by the mining sector, for example, to prototype ideas to test their feasibility, or even to make hard-to-find replacement parts for their machines.
FedNor's investment of $391,428 in the lab supports its mission to grow regional economies through technology adoption and hands-on skills development that is widely sought-after by businesses.
"We are thrilled that this partnership project is helping us meet the evolving innovation needs of businesses and organizations here in Timmins and across the region,” says Mitch Dumas, Acting President of Northern College. "There was definitely an industry need for a larger lab facility."
With its focus on job creation, skills development, and the advancement of new technologies, Northern College has long been a driving force in growing the economy in Northern Ontario. As a training and innovation institution that covers an expansive region of more than 150,000 square kilometres, the college plays an important role in helping to meet the learning and innovation needs of communities, residents and businesses.
“The expanded Additive Manufacturing Lab is enhancing industry competitiveness and boosting economic development, while serving as an experiential learning and resource hub for our students and the community,” Dumas says.
In the last few years, FedNor has invested $2 million towards a range of impactful projects at Northern College. This includes expanding the capacity of the Innovation Hub's Additive Manufacturing Lab, supporting the hiring of industry liaisons and research technicians, and helping to purchase state-of-the-art capital equipment to enhance the college's research and development capabilities.
Together, these investments have been instrumental in advancing innovation, fostering industry partnerships, and driving economic growth in the region.