Philip Cioni, assistant professor, chemical engineering technology, prepares MFG Chemical employees for hands-on training in the Wacker Institute pilot plant at Chattanooga State.
Three MFG Chemical employees get help outside the classroom from Philip Cioni, assistant professor, chemical engineering technology at Chattanooga State's Wacker Institute.
Chattanooga State Chemical engineering technology instructor Robert Coulter, PE, lectures a group of MFG Chemical employees in one of the high-tech classrooms in the Wacker Institute.
Charles Gavin, MFG Chemical president (first on left, second row) and Dave Driggers, MFG Chemical vice president of operations (first on left, third row) pose with employees including supervisors and manages who were trained by Chattanooga State. Greg Bennett, assistant professor, chemical engineering technology for Chattanooga State and the Wacker Institute (second from left, third row) designed classes and taught them along with Phil Cioni, assistant professor, chemical engineering technology in the Wacker Institute (third from left, second row).
The staff of Chattanooga State’s Wacker Institute created a special course to train MFG personnel in the operation of computer controlled distillation prior to the startup on new equipment at MFG Chemical, Inc.’s Kimberly Park plant in Dalton, Ga. The group of 18 MFG employees was made up of operators, chemists and chemical engineers. According to Tim McGhee, dean of the engineering technology division, “this is a great opportunity for us to use our staff and state-of-art training plant to assist manufacturers like MFG Chemical upgrade the skills of their workforce.”
Dave Driggers, vice-president of Operations for MFG, said, “We are excited about this training opportunity. Chattanooga State is the only place we know of that has the distillation equipment and the teaching staff to produce a course like this.” The distillation equipment, while not identical to MFG’s, offered a unique opportunity to teach the operation of multi-stage, computer controlled distillation.
Mr. Driggers and all of the other MFG employees were enthusiastic about the training and MFG looks forward to future training opportunities with Chattanooga State.