VU President discusses impact of $2.5 million investment into Vincennes’ Wabash Steel facility

VINCENNES, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) – The city of Vincennes is looking into the future as they receive a $2,500,000 investment into their Wabash Steel facility.

The money will allow them to capitalize on a new high-tech blaster for complex steel cleaning and preparation. Vincennes University President Chuck Johnson said the college is working every day to meet the growing needs of Wabash Steel.

“It is a natural partnership because we are co-located pretty much on the same space right next to each other, and they do a lot of things that we specialize in like advanced manufacturing,” said Johnson.

Johnson added that the university is educating workers on the latest technologies and teaching them how to be safe on the job.

“These are some of the technologies that will help do that as we go into the next 5 to 10 years, you are going to see more collaborative robotics and more Cobots in the field in manufacturing and other fields,” said Johnson.

Johnson said workers will be able to find great jobs after leaving the classroom and heading to places like Wabash Steel.

“That is really the goal for the center of applied robotics and automation and for VU overall is that we are here to help employers and find different ways to meet their needs which may change over time,” said Johnson.

Officials said that the new equipment will be fully installed by 2025.

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