Hello Lawrence, I certainly agree with your post here. Sorry, I am going to take this thread off track slightly. Now I have a question for you as well as some information. In our school's service area we have an OEM that manufactures some sizeable types of equipment. They use both FCAW-G and GMAW-short circuit and spray. A number of years ago one of the co-owners decided to streamline their operation, the first thing they did was clean out all of their welding machines and replace them all with one manufacturer's brand. Then they did the same with all of their welding guns and peripheral parts. Finally, and this is the one that I have some issues with, they had a special tri-mix shielding gas concocted. They use this gas mix on both their GMAW applications and their FCAW-G applications. I have done some work over in their facility and haven't noticed any outright issues with the tri-mix as it applies to use on the FCAW wire. It doesn't lead to any cracking issues or other obvious weld issues that I have noticed, but it does run way different than this same wire type runs when you use 75/25 shielding gas. They also run a considerable amount of downhill weld progression with both the GMAW spray and FCAW(yes I cringe when I see this) on heavier plate(3/8 to 5/8"). Since they are an OEM they are not really bound by any specific codes relating to the manufacture of their particular type of equipment.
Having described this scenario, I come to where our program fits in here. We have a considerable number of welders, and those who are trying to work into becoming welders for this company, they are urged to come over to the school and take classes that pertain to their duties on their jobs and the company pays for this training and schooling. My dilemna becomes this, I try to train individuals based upon correct procedures, uses, parameters and all of the other things that apply to our trade. When I run into this, I feel as though I have to point out the pitfalls that could result from some of the incorrect things that go on out in industry at times, obviously this causes confusion for a large number of these individuals. One of the ways that I have to try to justify this particular manufacturer's methods, as opposed to possibly more correct ones, is to state that the engineering may be over-engineered enough to allow these practices not to cause failures. This particular manufacturer sticks to the old addage "if it's worked ok up to now, we don't see any reason to change anything". I'm just wondering if you see much of this sort of thing and possibly what sorts of approaches you see for dealing with this issue. Best regards, Allan
Allan,
I'm in the same boat.
Some of the local employers that hire our grads, even hire our students part time while they go to school and often pay them to do it, operate day to day process controls that are not likely to be found in a code compliant environment.
Other local fabricators have called me in to train or certify their welders and just as quickly asked me to leave after I inform them that the welders are not the cause of the problems they are experiencing, it's thier inferior process. That I can't certify them if they don't use a process or procedure that is certifiable. I guess you can't win em all. Although I'm learning to be more "diplomatic" after I make a first facility tour.
I don't teach it they way they do it. If a student insists on using techniques that are... shall we say "unorthodox" I will not argue with succsess... But they never succseed when the old wrap around bender starts to play a part in the testing of welds.
We do have discussions about best practices in process control, what is code quality and what may be good enough for the job at hand.
I expect our grads to be agents of change when these local companys are forced to work to qualified procedures in order to compete... The companys that aren't able to adapt will die, it happens all the time, and nobody wants to see that. If I can't convince the management up front, well, I just have to be patient and wait for my students to move up into the ranks of influencial craftsperson or decision maker.
Hello again Lawrence, thanks for the response. It is difficult to bring people to understand that there is the point where you can get by and then there is the point where things have indeed been done correctly and the results will prove themselves out. Best regards, Allan