5-Day Welding Appreciation Course for Engineers

In many companies a mechanical or electrical engineer, engineering superintendent or engineering supervisor is given the responsibility of manging ‘the welding department’. Often this engineer will have absolutely no welding background and almost certainly his/her university or college study programme will have included no training in welding technology at all. If the engineer is lucky, he may be assisted by an experienced welder or, if very lucky, a welding supervisor but this is not enough to accept the responsibilities assigned to him/her.

For these reasons the 5-Day Welding Appreciation course is one of the Institute’s oldest courses and definitely one of its most successful says Shelton Zichawo, the SAIW Training Manager. The course was developed in the early 1980s when it was derived from an in-company training course SAIW ran for AECI engineers.

As time went on the course also became very popular with Sasol and Eskom engineers who attended as part of their professional development,” says Zichawo.

He adds that the course is definitely not only for big companies. “It is an extremely important course for engineers working in smaller companies where there is very little in-house backup for the engineer who has to be a jack-of-all-trades.”

The course content covers the common welding processes and their applications. It describes the effect of welding on materials and welding defects and their causes. The need for qualified welding procedures and how to go about specifying them are also discussed.

Very importantly engineers are encouraged to bring their welding experiences and problems to the course for sharing with the class in discussion. “It is surprising how many problems are similar and shared in a class of students,” says Zichawo. “We try to introduce the engineers to the complexities of welding, inform them of what can go wrong, the consequences of a failure including economic failure and how they should go about managing the welding function to avoid major issues,” Zichawo says.

It’s very much about helping the engineer to know and be aware of when he or she needs to bring in specialist help. The case history discussion period is held at the end of the course and is often one of the most helpful parts of the course for the engineer.

The 5-Day Appreciation course can be held in-company and anyone interested in running the course should call Shelton Zichawo on 011 298 2100.

The next pubic courses are scheduled for 12-16 August in Cape Town, 16-20 September in Durban and 21-25 October in Johannesburg.