KAYSVILLE -- A multimillion-dollar partnership between the Davis Applied Technology College and two multinational corporations has put Davis County on the map.
On Tuesday, the DATC held a special ceremony to unveil its Okuma Technology Institute, a new learning center made possible by a partnership between the school, the Okuma America Corporation, and Hartwig Inc.
Okuma, a machining technology company, recently donated $18 million in manufacturing equipment to the DATC to use in its machine tool technology program.
"This is a historic day on our campus," said Michael Bouwhuis, a Layton Councilman and president of the DATC. "With these partnerships, the state of Utah, particularly this region, is now instantly more competitive economically."
The new center will also serve as a showroom for Hartwig in the Rocky Mountain region, providing local manufacturers the opportunity to see the Okuma machines firsthand. Hartwig is one of the largest machine tool and manufacturing distributors in the country.
"It takes a college like this to facilitate the use of this technology," said Larry Schwartz, president and chief operating officer of Okuma. "There is a shortage of talented young people who are familiar with this technology and how to apply it, but like the movie 'Field of Dreams,' we built it and they will come."
Okuma products are used in the automotive, aerospace and defense, construction and farming equipment, oil and energy, medical, mold and die, and fluid power industries.
The company's machines include vertical and horizontal machining centers, lathes, double column machining centers, grinders and wheel machines.
The machines use computer numeric controls that program commands encoded on a storage medium, as opposed to manual controls like hand wheels or levers, and are used to cut various types of metal.
"It could be any kind of metal," said Julie Murhphy, spokeswoman for Okuma. "The machines can manufacture anything from pistons for cars to artificial knee joints."
Bouwhuis said the new facility ensures a bright future for the DATC.
"We now have a state-of-the-art, internationally recognized facility," he said. "And it's right here in Davis County."
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