Today are the Wisconsin State Championships for Skills U.S.A.
The welding competition includes student learners invited from all Wisconsin state technical colleges, and features a pressure Vessel that must be fitup and welded by the students.
GMAW (Short circuit and Spray), SMAW (E6010 and E7018), and GTAW (Stainless and Carbon Steels) Oxy-fuel and Plasma cutting are all part of the single weldment.,
They are given plans, metal and turned loose.
Short circuit and E6010 open roots on Horizontal Single bevels. on the 3/8" plate and the pipe to plate. Plus some overhead fillets with short circuit GMAW and E7018 SMAW. Short circuit Vert-up and down on two outside corners and E7018 vert-up on the other two. I think it's a pretty neat little project.
Pressure tested to 700 PSI (sounded a little high for a vessel with corners)
The Judging is not completed, but two of my students were the only ones to make full pressure with no leaks! ... They also must be visually inspected, each weld recieves a score and a written exam is also factored into the final talley.
Here is a pic of one of the projects being tested.
700 psi? We don't do the skills USA down here, but it is gaining popularity.
Lawrence, what school u teach, they didnt have that competition when i was at NTC in 95, pretty cool deal tho.
Cory,
I teach at Blackhawk Technical College in Janesville... Stateline area.
It's alot of fun.
Lawrence,
I had a gentleman by the name of Darrel Nelson he was the best teacher {of anything} that i ever had, and i owe alot for just teachin and givin his personal imput to more than just welding, you tech school teachers dont get enough credit for what u do in a short amount of time and the impact u have on your students...THANKYOU for doing what you do!
Cory
I saw a vessel similar to that in a textbook I have. This may sound like a crazy question, but can you constuct this vessel at an AWS testing facility and get any certifications? I was just thinking that if you could you could get a great deal of testing done on one project. The way it reads in the textbook I have makes it seem like you can. Sorry for the elementary question but I work in a small job shop where this stuff is not emphasized. Thanks for your input, just trying to learn more.
Lawrence hope you make it to Kansas City if you have one advancing PM me, I have a student that I will be going with, he took 1st in Job Skills A at the high school level with a torch safety demonstration. We will have to get together if you get to go.
Right on!
I'll update when we get the results...
Any minute now.
Unfortunatly, it's a long ceremony and of course... Welder starts with "W"
Congrats, You can be proud of that!
Congrats to both you and your students Lawrence. That is a moment to be proud of.
Students that learned and applied what you took time to teach.
700 does seem a little high for the item produced but I have seen things similar tested on up to 1200. What a sight when they blow.
Have a Great Day, Brent
aedwelder,
I wish I lived in Charlotte!
Really, it's a good question.
The AWS SENSE program has some projects that are sort of similar. They are viewed more as educational than production oriented however. These certs. are intended to get your foot in the door to take a code test that is more production oriented.
For production certs. It is usually a matter of certs that come right out of the codebook, very specific to alloy, process and position. It's expensive, but in our current world, thats just the way it is.,
Do the flat surfaces distort at test pressure?
I did that back when it was VICA took first in the state in metal fab, no national for it because they didn't want to bring in press brakes, shears, and slip rolls. I did the welding comp in sophomore year, it was just a torch cut, no grind 6", 6g pipe test.
Good show.
We are gearing up for our 2nd Annual Welder's Rendezvous scheduled for May 20th.
I'm working on a fabrication the welders can weld in a three time frame. Nothing entertains the crowd like a pressure test that results in a water display!
Best regards - Al
Yes, the flat 3/8" plate surfaces bend with 1000 psi "WATER" pressure. DO NOT try this pressure test with air!! In fact; make certain certain that there is no air in the vessel. Shake around and make certain certain there is a vent hole to assure no air. Water at a 1000psi will burst a weak weld and the pressure is gone. Absolutely no danger.
Congrats on your students doing well. That seems like an interesting project.
I recently competed in the New Jersey Skills competition, for high school students (and post-secondary, but they are a separate category). We were only required to take a written test, do a T joint pass with GMAW and FCAW (either side), a 3G plate with E6010 and E7018, and a stainless steel pyramid with GTAW. The welds were easy, although it was not fun to do it with good rods (Linc. 5P and Jetweld) when you are used to using the most worthless chinese made rods your school can find.
I placed second overall.
Fritz the Chinese rods should not be a hindrance if you look at them in the correct light of the situation. I have a toolroom full of Washington Alloy rods for my students. When you figure in the current budget problems of ISD's nationwide, the current cost of consumables, and the huge amount of waste by students, getting the most for your budget dollar is paramount. I would love all of the rods in inventory to be Lincoln 5p+'s, and Esab Atom Arc 7018's but it is just not going to happen with the current state of things being what they are. As a student though, rest assured if you learn to run good welds with mediocre rods, then you should have absolutely no problem welding with high quality rods, it should make you a more well rounded welder.
It's not so much the general technique, but the finer details. Such as we did the 3G without having any test pieces to set our amperage (lucky us, the scrap buckets got emptied a couple days before). I was told not to directly weld on the table to test my amperage, lucky that the machines at my school and the ones provided are both Miller with digital readouts. I noticed the 5p run at the same amperage for being 3/32" when the cheapos are 1/8", and the rod angle with 5p is around 75-90* to the work. While cheapo brand is 40-60*. The Jetwelds were 1/8" as are the cheapos, Jetweld requires a longer arc length and faster travel speed.
If I had a couple scrap pieces and another hour for the whole competition, first prize would have been mine. Although there are no excuses in the real world, I hope an employer wouldn't switch things up like that on a critical application.
I won the post-secondary division from PA about 2 weeks ago, looking forward to nationals. Unfortunately my practice time is going to be drastically limited because I leave for Iowa in 3 weeks to program welding robots as part of my internship, so the last time I do any manual welding will be about a month before the competition.
Maybe I'll get lucky and Motoman will decide to sponsor the competition this year.
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