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New tools set welding students up for success

Contributed NEW EQUIPMENT — Hunter Chetock, a senior welding student at Jefferson County Joint Vocational School, works with one of the program’s two new welding positioners to help prepare him for a successful career. Program instructors said the equipment is commonly used in local shops and having prior knowledge when obtaining a job would put students ahead of the game.

BLOOMINGDALE — Some new equipment is putting welding students in a better position to obtain jobs after graduation.

The welding program at Jefferson County Joint Vocational School added two welding positioners over the last month that are widely used on the job and literally provide another tool to get students on track to successful careers. Instructor Todd Parker said there were myriad benefits with the machines such ergonomic design for worker comfort and increased productivity to benefit employers. He noted that a weld positioner is a must for precision welding of round tubing, pipe or solids.

“A weld positioner is a device designed keeping in mind the welder’s comfort. It helps reduce their fatigue as they stand in one position and do their job,” he explained. “They do not have to move or bend as the welding positioner can rotate up to 360 degrees. The object or workpiece to be welded is adjusted on the positioner.”

He continued that the working principle of the equipment was the same for large or small tasks. They form a plane of rotation which is perpendicular to the floor and workers can place large sets of tooling on them. Simply, a welding positioner is a rotating table.

More benefits include improved quality since the setting facilitates accuracy with low chances of error; worker safety since the workpiece to be welded is well-anchored so it does not move; and reduced worker fatigue since the design of the positioner allows the worker to stand in one position and is adjusted according to height and comfort level. This decreases any fatigue or strain and helps improve productivity. Other positives include being able to adjust the positioners in small spaced to help reduce clutter on the production floor and semi-automatic functioning by connecting it to a power source to help increase the speed and, in turn, the welder’s productivity.

Instructional aide Curtis Parker said the program’s entire senior class of 13 students have already been trained on the equipment and juniors will eventually follow.

“More of our local shops are transitioning to this and we wanted to give students and opportunity to get a feel for it,” he commented. “It helps workers from a fatigue standpoint and it helps companies from a productivity standpoint. With welders being less fatigued, they are getting more done, thereby making the companies more money.”

Senior Hunter Chetock said he is benefitting from the equipment and the program as a whole.

“The first time I used it, I liked it,” he said. “I work at least twice as fast with the positioner.”

He has mainly worked with pipe coupons and been learning different welding positions, things that would help him on his journey to the workforce. Chetock, who is based at Indian Creek High School, hopes to become a welder with the local union once he graduates and said his time and training at the JVS has definitely helped him.

Curtis Parker concurred that his training and the new equipment put Chetock in a great position of his own.

“This would probably help him get ahead of the game when getting into the pipefitter’s union,” he concluded.

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