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Welcome to The J. Mike Walker '66 Department of Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M University!

The J. Mike Walker ’66 Department of Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M University is committed to supporting research needs and promoting the use of shared equipment resources. The shared service facility (SSF) is open to all users. A user fee will be charged for equipment usage. It will be used to recover the operating costs associated with providing the services. All users must read and follow the facility-use policies.

Facility Use Policies

General rule and safety 

  • Unauthorized individuals are not allowed in the facility. 
  • No food or drinks are permitted. 
  • Users always wear proper personal protective equipment including long pants and closed toes 
    shoes. 
  • Users must follow the proper operating procedures. The damage in the equipment caused by misuse
    or neglect will be charged to the principal investigators. The user must agree to a reimbursement
    for any damage caused by user’s activities of the equipment.
  • Users are required to clean the work space after using the equipment.
  • All users must follow the laboratory safety rules. Notify the facility staff immediately if there is
    anything wrong with the facilities.
  • The facility manager reserves the right to suspend the use of the facility if the users do not follow
    the facility-use policies.
  • Access to the facility will be granted via card swipe. You may not share student ID or user ID to
    have access to the facility.

User Fee

  • All users must pay for the instrument usage that are based on usage time. Staff charges are incurred for staff-supported lab activities, such as equipment setup, training and processing requests. Billing is sent on a monthly basis. 
    • User fees are waived when the equipment is used for classes, not including MEEN 685 and MEEN 691. Usage to support activity academically associated via 685, 691, or thesis work will be billed at the standard rate. 

Equipment Usage

  • First time users must be trained by facility staff before acquiring access to the facilities. The facility manager will be the point of contact to get training on the shared equipment.
  • Trained users may use the facilities during normal operating hours. Qualified users who demonstrated the ability to operate the equipment independently may use the facilities at all times with proper reservations.
  • The user who signs up for the equipment is the only one who has permission to use the requested equipment. Users may use instruments that they are qualified to operate independently.
  • Users are required to reserve equipment through a web-based system, iLab, before each usage.
  • Reservation cancellation should be made before 4 hours prior to the reserved time through iLab.
  • Users must log in and out of the instrument session through iLab Kiosk.
  • Users must stop using the equipment and log off their reservation when the reserved time has passed unless the reservation is extended.