NORWALK, CALIF. - In a newly formed alliance with Toshiba Machinery Co. America, Cerritos College in Norwalk received a new press with 60 tons of clamping force for its manufacturing technology department. Terry L. Price, department chairman, said the injection press is a welcome addition. The department had been teaching plastics processing technology on presses dating from the 1960s and 1970s.
``This gives our students access to new equipment technology to make them better employees in the molding com-munity,'' Price said. ``The way budgets are being cut in California, there's no way we could have done this on our own.''
The Cerritos plastics program was one of only two to survive extensive budget cuts two years ago in the state's college education system.
The department also recently received a $1.4 million grant from the Technology Reinvestment Project to help convert defense industry technology to commercial applications. The money will be used to operate 20 training events during the next 24 months that will benefit small businesses in the Southern California area.
