Oct. 6—Manufacturing Day apparently is just too big in northwestern Pennsylvania to have free events confined to one day.

Held annually the first Friday in October, Manufacturing Day, or MFG Day, is designed to show the reality and future of modern manufacturing careers, according to the Manufacturing Institute based in Washington, D.C. The institute is the nonprofit workforce development and education partner of the National Association of Manufacturers, a trade group for all types of manufacturers.

In northwestern Pennsylvania — where tooling and machining firms reign, supplying tools, equipment and parts to major manufacturers — today features an open house at one of Meadville's largest employers; Friday has tours of a historic machine shop near Saegertown; and Wednesday includes a regional event in Erie for students about career opportunities in manufacturing.

Today from 4:30 to 7 p.m., Acutec Precision Aerospace Inc. opens its doors to the public with free tours of its plant at the Crawford Business Park, off Dunham Road in Vernon Township, just outside of Meadville.

All guests must wear closed-toed shoes to enter the facility.

Acutec, with 400 workers, manufactures a variety of components for the aerospace industry. The firm recently moved toward an employee stock ownership plan, giving its workers an ownership stake in the firm.

Guided tours of Acutec's state-of-the-art manufacturing facility take place every 15 minutes, starting at 4:30 p.m. And the last tour at 6:45.

The company will have interactive games with robots, airplane-making activities plus cotton candy, popcorn, snow cones and more.

Visit acutecprecision.com/manufacturingday to learn more.

Friday, the public can time travel back more 100 years with a visit to the Sippy Historic Machine Shop, 17380 Route 198, Saegertown. It will be open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. And 3 to 5 p.m. It's located a half-mile east of the Saegertown exit of Interstate 79, and is on the grounds of Highpoint Tool & Machine, a precision machining company.

With working machines more than a century old, the museum offers a closeup view of what it took to design and make parts for all sorts of things as well as the machines themselves needed to shape and form the parts.

The Sippy Historic Machine Shop is a re-creation of what once was the Foriska Machine Shop on West College Street in Meadville.

The milling machines, lathes and grinders all are powered by an overhead central belt system within the shop.

An electric motor is connected to the central overhead mainline shaft via a wide leather belt. When the electric motor runs, the wide leather belt whirs and flaps as it drives the shaft at 250 revolutions a minute. The central shaft runs the length of the building with the various machines connected to the overhead shaft by their own belts and pulleys.

On Wednesday, the Manufacturer & Business Association (MBA), along with dozens of partner and sponsor organizations, host the 2022 Manufacturing Day celebration at Erie's Bayfront Convention Center.

More than 1,500 students, educators and community leaders from the region are expected to participate.

The event will have more than 50 interactive exhibits and displays, as well as educational breakout sessions on topics critical to today's manufacturing. It will include a number of manufacturers from Crawford County as well as the Northwestern Pennsylvania chapter of the National Tooling and Machining Association, an industry trade group.

Keith Gushard can be reached at (814) 724-6370 or by email at kgushard@meadvilletribune.com.