A new approach to welding skills validation

Figure 1
As students work on welding skills within the augmented reality their special welding helmets provide, teachers can see what they see as they weld and offer guidance, which would be particularly difficult in an actual welding booth.

Everyone has seen the virtual welding programs at tradeshows like FABTECH®. Crowds gather around them because they can watch their friends lay down beads on a big screen and then commiserate how they scored against each other and the established benchmark. You also don’t have to worry about sparks burning a hole in that favorite shirt.

That basic virtual technology is a great way to introduce people to welding and to get students up and running with the basics of certain processes.

As with most metal fabricating technology, however, advancements in these types of tools didn’t stop with those product introductions. Tools have matured to embrace augmented reality and even live welding in a bid to offer more value to educators and some manufacturers. In fact, these advanced welding training tools are increasingly being looked at not just for basic skills development, but welding skills validation. Early successes suggest that these technologies might make sense for those private-sector companies that want to qualify welders applying for certain jobs or to determine if welders have mastered certain skills before they can progress to a new position.

The World of Augmented Reality

Lincoln Tech’s Grand Prairie, Texas, campus is new to the use of specialized welding simulators as an educational tool, having put the three Augmented Arc™ reality welding systems from Miller Electric Mfg. LLC into their welding program only last year. But the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas is thirsty for welding talent, so school officials decided that Director of Education Rick Calverley and his team of welding instructors should test it out for Lincoln Tech’s other campuses with welding programs. Early results seem promising, according to Calverley.

“The augmented reality system gives them the opportunity to get a feel for the muscle memory and movement that it takes for that particular welding skill,” Calverley said. “It also allows the teacher to stand right there, move the student’s hand around, make corrections, or even talk in their ears, which is something they can’t do in a lab environment where noise levels are high.”

The three units, which all have what looks to be a typical welding power source, are now set up in a typical classroom. The units sit on computer tables (see Figure 1) with dividers, which mimics a welding booth. In addition to different coupons that can be used with the system, which represent the different joint types, the system comes with an arm the coupons can be attached to, on which students practice different welding positions.

When a student puts on the welding helmet, the augmented reality part of the training sets in. The specially designed welding helmet has a camera and a sensor to send video and position data to the system computer, which in turn creates an augmented reality welding simulation. It simulates a welding lab even though the student is in a classroom and working with a plastic coupon and a dummy torch. While the student is doing the welding assignment, the system computer sends real-time updates to the heads-up display and speakers inside the helmet. This same procedure applies to any of the welding procedures that a student may be learning: gas metal arc, flux-cored, gas tungsten arc, and shielded metal arc welding.

Calverley said that instructors have come to like the augmented reality technology because it is easy to set up and run. They are also able to customize the curriculum, develop assignments for students, and run reports to keep tabs on students’ mastery of welding skills.

But it’s the video aspect that really has engaged students and instructors, according to Calverley. The three units are connected to overhead monitors (see Figure 2) so that the students and the instructor can see what the student doing the augmented reality welding sees. They also see the visual indicator that signifies if the student is welding correctly. For instance, if the angle is incorrect, everyone will see the warning to correct it.

“The instructor can see all of that in the overhead televisions, not like when he’s in the booth with the student,” Calverley said. “He can see it and correct it on the spot. It’s a much better learning tool than traditional welding training in many ways.”

Figure 1
Classmates can see how their fellow welding trainees are faring in their augmented reality training efforts thanks to overhead monitors attached to each unit.

Right now students are using the augmented reality tool before they head out to the lab. They are getting used to the welding process being taught and learning about the correct torch angle, tip distance, and traveling speed for the task. When they seem to have the process down, the instructor moves them to the lab. When it comes time to learn another aspect of the process, say, welding in a different position, the instructor can send the student back to the augmented reality training tool to learn the basics again before the student returns to the lab.

Ultimately this process of sending students between augmented reality and the welding lab will become more formalized.

“Because this is somewhat new to us, we’re trying to work through how we can use these units for skills validation,” Calverley said. “Basically, now it’s set up like a regular class exercise. In the future, I’m sure we’ll have them attain a certain threshold that they have to pass in order to go to the lab.”

In the meantime, the 150 students in the welding program can expect their education with these augmented reality tools to continue.

The Real World Influences Welding Training

Columbus State Community College is not unlike other vocational training institutions in the U.S.: It is trying to create skilled welders for the Columbus, Ohio, manufacturing companies that are ravenous for them. To help with this endeavor, the college uses Lincoln Electric’s REALWELD® training system (see Figure 3) and 20 Power Wave® C300 power sources.

The REALWELD trainer, which the school took possession of in the summer of 2015, differs from competing products in that it allows the welder to practice arc-on and arc-off welds. Motion-capture technology captures the welding process in both scenarios, and a computer analyzes and scores the welding technique against an approved standard.

The unit can be used to train for GMAW, FCAW, and SMAW in a number of welding positions and joints. During welding, the system also provides real-time audio coaching, providing guidance on weld speed, travel angle, contact tip-to-work distance, proximity to joints, and deposition.

Scott Laslo, an assistant professor for the college’s design, construction, and skilled trades curriculum, said that this training system primarily has been used for skills assessment. Instructors get a definitive idea of where a new student entering the welding curriculum is with welding skills so the student can be placed in the appropriate classes. The unit is also very useful in providing a quantitative measure of how well the student has performed certain welding processes. Because of the technology, students have been able to create welding portfolios that contain images and documentation of the welds they have learned.

More exciting, according to Laslo, is the trainer’s ability to create a welding procedure specification (WPS) that can be used as the “gold standard” for other welders practicing the same process.

“I can honestly say that I don’t know of anyone else that is doing this,” Laslo said. “We are actually going out to businesses and bringing in their best welders to let them work on this machine.”

Figure 1
The instructor reviews the student’s performance after a weld is completed. The gauges indicate what percentage of time the trainee was within tolerance of the welding procedure specification.

The trainer captures that welding information from that master welder or a collection of expert welders, and the employer can use the data to create a WPS that reflects the correct technique to achieve the “perfect” weld, at least by the employer’s standards.

Columbus State Community College worked with Amsted Rail in Groveport, Ohio, to establish a baseline of welding competence using the REALWELD unit. For instance, a master welder came to the college and stick-welded a pad of beads in the flat position using an E7018 1/8-in. electrode. That welder’s performance data for that process is now electronically documented and being used to assess the skills and abilities of newly hired welders at the Amsted Rail facility.

This scenario took on a new level of excitement with the arrival of the 20 C300 power sources last summer. The C300s, which are the same units sold to industrial customers, can gauge welds against WPSs that are stored in the power source’s computer memory. Laslo said he can create a WPS with the REALWELD system, which is attached to a C300, and then send it out to all of the individual power sources.

Now any of the welding lab booths can be used as a testing station for students or individuals who may be sent to the school to validate his or her welding skills for a nearby employer. Employers get a recorded, numerical score for each WPS.

“This is the cool part. When that industry expert comes in and goes to work on our trainer, I’m actually capturing every weld they make and then I’m able to push that out to all of my machines,” Laslo said.

Laslo also is thinking beyond the scope of the college campus.

“We’re working with other career centers and high school programs that have the same equipment that we have, and we’re pushing out our training profiles to the schools to help standardize welding curriculums with our region,” Laslo said. “So if other companies are located in another county and there’s a school that’s closer to them than our facility, they can go to the other school. It just helps the region.”

New Training Technologies Make Their Mark

Some older fabricators may scoff at the idea that these types of training devices can deliver the same learning experience as welding in a booth for hours. But research suggests that these grizzled veterans of the shop floor are wrong.

In a 2011 research paper (“Virtual Reality Integrated Welder Training”), three engineering students at Iowa State University compared two training groups, one that used a combination of virtual tools and traditional welding training curriculum and one that received their training strictly in welding booths. The researchers learned the following:

1. The team that used the virtual reality tools demonstrated higher levels of team learning and interaction than the other team.
2. The virtual reality environment allowed the trainees to lay down more welds than their counterparts in the other group.

Both of those factors contributed to superior training outcomes compared to the traditionally trained groups. The study also posited that employing these advanced training technologies can reduce the number of coupons and consumables used during a typical training period, saving an educational institution considerable costs over a year’s time.

With technology such as augmented reality and the ability to score arc-on welds only improving, it’s only a matter of time before these tools end up in the welding department of fab shops as companies look to ramp up their own welding training efforts.

Lincoln Electric, www.lincolnelectric.com

Miller Electric Mfg. Co., www.millerwelds.com