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We recently toured across Virginia and Maryland with our Soldamatic Augmented Reality Welding Bus, to show how students are practicing welding in a virtual scenario before they graduate to real welding booths.
Augmented reality is an emerging trend in welding training programs for several reasons.
Cut costs.
Teaching welding can be expensive because of consumables. You burn rod, wire, gas and electricity every day. There are also consumable parts, like torch tips, that go bad over time and need replacement.
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Building or expanding a welding lab also requires a lot of upfront capital. The welding machines, booths, curtains, layout tables, pipe stands with clamps, and a full ventilation system can really add up.
With augmented reality, you don’t see any of these costs. You only have the cost of the trainer itself.
Eliminate wasted time in the classroom.
You know the drill: Students arrive to class, take time to get dressed in safety gear, prep the welder, take 10-15 passes on their project, then go to the grinding station to clean up their work. Then it’s back to the booth for another 10-15 passes. By then, it’s time to get undressed before class ends. Between all the dressing and cleanup, there’s a lot of wasted time that could be used for practicing.
Students need that repetition to understand the movement, angle and distance needed for a perfect weld. With augmented reality, students can go straight to work and practice all class long without interruption.
Don’t limit your program size by the number of welding booths you have.
There’s an increasing demand for welders in construction industries, from road and bridges to building to ship construction. For example, I recently learned that Newport News Shipbuilding is looking to train 700 new welders within the next couple of years. This demand is driving the popularity of welding programs, particularly on the East Coast.
Most welding programs in our area have 10 to 15 welding booths but can have upwards of 60 students who want to enter the program. With traditional welding booths, you can only teach as many students as you have booths. This creates an unmanageable waitlist.
With augmented reality trainers, you can expand your program without putting in an entirely new welding shop. All you need is a traditional computer lab or classroom space to install as many units as you need. While some students train on the augmented reality students, others can train in the welding lab – and then they can swap.
Create a safer learning environment.
Safety is a serious concern in welding labs. Aside from electrocution concerns, you have potentially harmful exhaust gas, compressed gas bottles, flammable gasses, and arc flash concerns.
This is a non-issue with augmented reality trainers. Students use a simulation workstation that mimics real-world welding without gas or electricity.
Moreover, you don’t need a certified instructor to teach on augmented reality systems because safety concerns are irrelevant. In fact, you don’t even need an instructor in the room at all times because the system itself does the teaching.
At the end of the day students still need to get in a welding booth to understand what it will be like on the job – a spark hits you on the cheek, you get used to the smell of the fumes, etc.
However when getting students off the ground – and a large number of students at that – augmented reality is a great option.
