While some students were busy taking notes in class last semester, students in Industrial Engineering 4599 were working on changing the way airplane maintenance is performed.
And they succeeded.
University alumni Micah Shaw, Eric Fontenot and Aaron Yglesias created the Track Vac 2.0, a multi-faceted vacuum, in their senior design course, IE 4599. The prototype was created in a prerequisite course in the Fall of 2010.
The vacuum was created for Aeroframe, a company that specializes in the maintenance, repair and overhaul of commercial and military aircraft in Lake Charles.
“Eric was in the first class, which helped us because he already had some knowledge about the vacuum and what Aeroframe wanted,” Shaw said.
Aeroframe General Manager Mark Redmond said the Track Vac 2.0 will significantly reduce the manpower needed to clean seat tracks on cargo planes.
“Usually it takes 10 to 12 guys to clean the plane,” Redmond said. “With the vacuum, cleaning the seat tracks will only require a few hours and a single person to check on the vacuum every once in a