College of Engineering

About the ACME Building

This 87,608-sq. ft. complex includes two separate buildings: A main building providing space for the Manufacturing and Industrial Systems Engineering programs and the Center for Manufacturing Research, as well as Civil and Environmental Engineering and Mechanical Engineering departments; and a second building housing the new Durham Foundry, one of only three smart educational foundries in the United States.

The two buildings will be connected by an enclosed service courtyard providing support for various programs. In addition to the Durham Foundry, notable spaces include a college-wide machine shop, concrete lab, high bay structures lab with a strong wall and floor for structural testing, a fabrication lab, teaching and research labs as well as administrative offices. The foundry building will house a single-story high bay space for state-of-the-art Smart Foundry technology along with traditional furnaces and materials support spaces.

View ACME Building Architectural Animation

• Durham Foundry (7,152-sq. ft.): A single-story high bay space for state-of-the-art Smart Foundry technology along with traditional furnaces and materials support spaces. for state-of-the-art metal casting and materials research, doubling the size of the current foundry.
• Metallurgical Lab (within Foundry)
• Casting Lab (within Foundry)
• Advanced Manufacturing Lab for instruction and research in advanced manufacturing processes and techniques.
• State-of-the-art PLC Lab and Robotics Lab for learning to automate and protect cyber-physical systems.
• Machine Shop (10,303-sq. ft.) consolidating the college's various shops into a single, open space for collaboration.
• Fabrication Lab (4,368-sq. ft.) to consolidate Tech's current machine and prototyping shops into one, open space complete with welders, CNC mills, lathes, metal presses, metal tube benders, band saws, drill presses, 3D printers, water jets, laser engravers, and injection molding.
• Material Formulation and Characterization Labs (4,000-sq. ft.): Space for students and faculty to learn and research construction materials (concrete and soils) from the nano- to macro-scale to enable the next generation of construction materials and practices.

• Load Frame Tensile Testing Lab (2,286-square-foot) to investigate material behavior under a wide range of testing conditions, housing equipment such as multiple electromechanical and servo hydraulic universal testing machines, mechanical analyzers, and torsion and impact testers.
• Structural Testing Lab (4,000-sq. ft.): Open space for the testing of large structures, facilitated by a 28-foot tall, L-shaped reaction wall for horizontal testing and a 15x15’ strong floor, which will allow horizontal testing of bridge elements up to 53 feet long.
• Computer Lab to support CAD/CAM 3D modeling work for manufacturing.
• Fabrication Lab
• Flexible Research Lab
• Metals – Plating and Coating labs
• Materials Yard
• Center for Manufacturing Research Suite: New research space and administrative offices for CMR.
• Department of Manufacturing and Industrial Systems Engineering Suite: Will become the new home for the college's academic programs in Engineering Technology, Industrial and Systems Engineering, and more.