{"id":849,"date":"2016-10-04T15:47:09","date_gmt":"2016-10-04T15:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/?p=849"},"modified":"2016-10-04T17:33:22","modified_gmt":"2016-10-04T17:33:22","slug":"tstc-welding-technology-program-receives-robot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/?p=849","title":{"rendered":"TSTC Welding Technology Program Receives Robot"},"content":{"rendered":"

(WACO) \u2013 Texas State Technical College in Waco\u2019s Welding Technology program recently received a Kuka welding robot valued at $150,000.<\/span><\/p>\n

The gift was made by ARC Specialties in northwest Houston, a company that designs and builds automated machinery for welding, pipeline manufacturing and the oil and gas industries.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important that the students get access to the newer technology,\u201d said Jim Walker, a welding technologist and certified welding inspector at ARC Specialties. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t do any good if they don\u2019t ever touch the equipment and have to learn about it once in the industry.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mark Watson, a TSTC Welding Technology instructor, said the robot will give students a way to learn technology they may encounter in the industry. He said a robot like the one from the company can be used in the automotive industry on assembly lines.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI want them to be able to operate it,\u201d Watson said. \u201cYou also have to learn how to program and repair it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Robots typically perform about 10 percent of tasks across the manufacturing spectrum, but this is expected to increase to 25 percent worldwide by 2025, according to the Boston Consulting Group, a private global management consulting firm specializing in business strategy.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s taking over the skill level of your welders,\u201d Watson said. \u201cNowadays, it\u2019s hard to find the skilled welders. Students need to be on the global playing field with technology.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Watson\u2019s welding students are excited to start learning about the machine.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rhett Fuller, 20, of Cedar Park and a 2014 graduate of Cedar Park High School, said the robot combined his interests in welding and computers. He said the donation made him glad he chose TSTC to study welding.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the things Mark is doing is for the students,\u201d Fuller said. \u201cHe wants to teach a new <\/span>generation of welders.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Taylor Otte, 20, of Lexington and a 2014 graduate of Lexington High School, is studying for an advanced pipe welding certificate. He said he enjoys learning how robotics and his knack for mathematics fit into the welding field.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy aunt is the high school principal in Lexington and she told me about a tour of TSTC when I was a student,\u201d Otte said. \u201cI learned about other programs and took an instrumentation class here. It made me want to be in the field doing work. I want to do underwater welding.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Walker, along with Dan Allford, the company\u2019s owner, and Randy Ellington, project manager and process specialist, all have associate degrees in welding technology from TSTC in Waco.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe all enjoyed going through the program at TSTC,\u201d Walker said. \u201cWe are still involved in welding and deal with welding on a daily basis. It\u2019s been something all three of us have loved to do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

ARC Specialties is also represented in the Welding Technology program\u2019s Advisory Board.<\/span><\/p>\n

Watson envisions securing more technology through partnerships with other companies in the future so students can be more competitive for jobs.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGood things are going to come to us in the future,\u201d Watson said.<\/span><\/p>\n

For more information on the Welding Technology program, log on to tstc.edu.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"welding_robot_tstc-resized\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"img_0624-resized\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(WACO) \u2013 Texas State Technical College in Waco\u2019s Welding Technology program recently received a Kuka welding robot valued at $150,000. The gift was made by ARC Specialties in northwest Houston, a company that designs and builds automated machinery for welding, pipeline manufacturing and the oil and gas industries. \u201cIt\u2019s important that the students get access […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-waco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=849"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":853,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849\/revisions\/853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}