Academics
Additional trainings are planned for other locations this summer.
The trainings will be led by Tim Dell, a professor in the Department of Automotive Technology and coordinator of the diesel and heavy equipment program — one of only a handful of such programs in the U.S.
Dell is considered an expert and has extensive experience and book credits to his name. In fact, he’ll use his two books — “Hydraulic Systems for Mobile Equipment” and “Heavy Equipment Power Trains and Systems” — as the basis for the class, which he developed to help build the fundamental knowledge necessary to truly be a diagnostician.
“In these workshops, participants will learn answers to questions that the manufacturers do not even know about,” he said. “The boards we use are the best in the world, and they enable participants to see things that are otherwise are not visible, such as what the fluid flow in an open-center system, the amount of fluid present in an accumulator, the bubbles formed by cavitation, a cylinder in an overrunning circuit, and the relationships of pressures and flows in various hydraulic systems."
Participants will build multiple hydraulic circuits including open-center, pressure-compensating, pre-spool LSPC, post-spool, and negative flow control.
“We will also run multiple machines for demonstration purposes, and make adjustments to hydrostatic drives,” he said.
Dell, who earned two degrees from Pittsburg State — a bachelor's degree in automotive technology and a master's degree in technology education — has taught at Pittsburg State 22 years. Dell received his doctoral degree in curriculum and instruction from Kansas State University. He began his career working for Case IH in their Technical Service Group in Racine, Wisconsin, specializing in combine diagnostics.
Other upcoming trainings:
In June, Dell will take the class on the road to Watertown, South Dakota.
In July, he’ll teach another advanced hydraulic class in Pittsburg.
In August, he’ll offer a basic hydraulics 101 class in Pittsburg.
“Honestly, a lot of today's hydraulic systems have people puzzled, and the workshops will solve those mysteries,” he said. “It is my goal that when our graduates walk into an interview with an expert, that they be able to educate the expert about machine systems. I want the interviewee to be able to educate the interviewer.”
The workshops are sponsored by the Kansas Center for Career and Technical Education (KCCTE) at Pittsburg State University.
For more information: 620-235-4261.
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