One of the labs in Black Engineering is home to two new prototype lab skids, donated by Emerson Process Management’s Fisher. In honor of the donation, the lab was dedicated as the Emerson/Fisher Laboratory on April 21.
“Our students will greatly benefit from the donation of these lab skids from Emerson/Fisher,” said Caroline Hayes, chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. “The previous lab equipment we had for fluid mechanics was more than 40 years old, so the installation of this lab bench allows our students to have a more beneficial learning experience.”
Students enrolled in the class ME 335: Fluid Flow, will use the bench in their classroom experiments to learn concepts in incompressible fluid flow; dimensional analysis and similitude; and internal flow applications. The lab skid fits well with the established 
curriculum, and provides the application of multiple different fluid mechanics experiments, including testing of pump performance, flow through pipes and valves, flow meters, fluid momentum, and transition to turbulence.
The lab skid was designed and developed in collaboration with ME faculty and assembled at the Emerson Engineering building in Marshalltown.
Emerson Process Management is a worldwide supplier of process automation services and technologies, which utilizes brands like Fisher to help customers reduce plant maintenance cost, reduce capital requirements, reduce cost of regulatory compliance, and increase process availability.