TCI Precision Metals will provide custom Machine-Ready Blanks to the National Institute for Metalworking Skills (NIMS), in support of the 2019 SkillsUSA National CNC Championship, June 24-28, in Louisville, Kentucky.

NIMS will organize and run three CNC machining competitions during the SkillsUSA National Leadership and Student Conference. Talented high school and community college students from across the Country will go head-to-head to determine who is the most skilled, competing for scholarships and gold, silver, and bronze medals in the categories of CNC Milling Specialist, CNC Technician, and CNC Turning Specialist.

To ensure a flat and square playing field all competitors will start with a custom Machine-Ready Blank, provided by TCI Precision Metal.  “We appreciate TCI’s continued support, providing Machine-Ready Blanks for all of our competitions, and helping us to ensure consistency,” said  Lynnard Jenifer, NIMS education liaison.

Just like in commercial applications, the close tolerance blanks will allow the students to get right to the high-value work of finish machining.  Machine-Ready Blanks from TCI Precision Metals arrive ready to load directly into the CNC machining centers, eliminating the need for onsite sawing, grinding, flattening, and squaring operations.  Each Blank is deburred, clean and to NIMS specifications – guaranteed as close as +/- .0005” dimensionally and as close as .0002” flatness, squareness, and parallelism.  Every Blank is exactly the same, eliminating any material advantage in the competition.