Penn College faculty prep to teach electron beam welding

Jorge Alvarez, field engineer for Cambridge Vacuum Eng., discusses components of an electron beam welder with Penn College welding instructors (from left) Aaron E. Biddle, Ty E. Rhinehart, and Ryan P. Good.

A week after the spring semester ended, six welding faculty at Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport, Pa., went back to school—as students. That preparation will equip them to be pioneers this fall when the college becomes the first U.S. educational institution to feature an electron beam welding machine.

Welding instructors Michael R. Allen, Aaron E. Biddle, Ryan P. Good, Jacob B. Holland, Ty E. Rhinehart, along with Assistant Professor James N. Colton II, spent three days in Agawam, Mass., training with field engineers from Cambridge Vacuum Eng. (CVE) on an electron beam welding machine. CVE is scheduled to deliver a 60-kV unit to campus in late October.

Penn College faculty initiated the CVE relationship after meeting company representatives a few years ago at FABTECH, North America's largest metal forming, fabricating, welding, and finishing event.

"The faculty had the foresight to think how an electron beam welder could create distinction for our program," said Loni N. Kline, vice president for institutional advancement. "Tony Slater took the opportunity to advocate within CVE that it made a lot of sense to place this equipment in our facility, so they worked out a deal that made it possible for us to partner."

Slater's push for the partnership followed a visit to Penn College and the welding-related instructional space in the Lycoming Engines Metal Trades Center. A 35,000-sq.-ft. expansion of the facility—funded in part by a $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration—will be completed by August.

According to Slater, Penn College will be the first learning establishment in the U.S. and only the second in the world to have an electron beam welder.

Penn College offers a bachelor's degree in welding and fabrication engineering technology, an associate degree in welding technology, an associate degree in metal fabrication technology, and a certificate in welding.