testing at multiple orientations, helping to detect and characterize all flaws surrounding the weld. It contains a rotational and extending feature, which enables horizontal and vertical weld examinations without removing the tooling from the reactor for orientation. ARC Specialties Donates $150,000 Welding Robot to Texas State Technical College Jim Walker (front, right) from ARC Specialties hands off the keys to Texas State Technical College Welding Technology Instructor Mark Watson (front, left) as students pose behind them. Texas State Technical College in Waco’s welding technology program has received a KUKA welding robot valued at $150,000 from ARC Specialties in northwest Houston, a designer and builder of automated machinery for welding, pipeline manufacturing, and oil/gas industries. “It’s important that the students get access to the newer technology,” said Jim Walker, a welding technologist and American Welding Society Certified Welding Inspector at ARC Specialties. Mark Watson, a Texas State Technical College welding technology instructor, noted the robot will give students a way to learn technology they may encounter in the industry. “I want them to be able to operate it,” Watson said. “You also have to learn how to program and repair it.” His welding students are excited to start learning about the machine. For Rhett Fuller, 20, of Cedar Park, the robot combined his interests in welding and computers. Walker, along with Dan Allford, the company’s owner, and Randy Ellington, project manager and process specialist, have associate degrees in welding technology from Texas State Technical College in Waco. Industry Notes • Welding program graduates of Lurleen B. Wallace Community College, Andalusia, Ala., have an improved path to journeymen certification with the United Association (UA) apprenticeship program. An articulation agreement gives preference into the UA of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry program for the United States and Canada. It will also credit one to two years off the apprenticeship length, based on the number/ types of certificates and work experience, according to Lance Albin, international representative. WJ DECEMBER 2016 / WELDING JOURNAL 17 For info, go to aws.org/adindex
Welding Journal | December 2016
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