Page 12 - HIWT Spring 2015 World of Welding

The World of Welding

Delaware Area Career Center Welding Students Are Up For The Challenge

By Brad DeMent

The 2014/2015 school year has been a busy one for the welding
students from Delaware Area Career Center. From chuckin pumpkins
to competing nationally at SKILLSUSA the DACC students were up
for the challenge.

This is my 4th year working at the Delaware Area Career Center
(DACC) where I am the Welding and Metal Fabrication instructor.
The welding program at DACC is a 2 year program which focuses on
all major process of welding and cutting: SMAW, GMAW, GTAW,
FCAW, OFC and PAC. Training focuses on welding in all positions
on mild steel, aluminum and stainless steel from 16 gauge to 5/8”
plate. Student’s welding performance follow AWS SENSE Level 1
procedures with visual and destructive tests completed within the
lab. This school year (2014/15) started with 21 high school juniors
and 10 seniors. Since I have been here, the program has seeing a
steady increase in enrollment each year, which is a great thing to
see!

SKILLSUSA:
The welding program, along with other programs at DACC,
participates in SkillsUSA, a partnership of students, teachers and
industry representatives working together to ensure that America
has a skilled workforce which helps students prepare to be skilled
and effective in their industry. Members of SkillsUSA compete
against each other at the local, state, and national levels.

Last school year was one for the record book for the DACC Welding
program. We competed in the SkillsUSA welding competition and
had our first ever student advance to the State competition. He
ended up finishing 9th in the state, a huge accomplishment! We
also competed in the Welding Fabrication Team competition, a
first time event for the Ohio SkillsUSA. A team of 3 students had
to fabricate and weld a product on the given blueprint within a 4 DACC Skills USA Chapter 13 play empty
hour time frame. The product was a fire pit and the team did great, and then the walls were sealed water-tight. The walls were then
finishing 8th in the state. filled with water and the water line was hook up to an air pump.
The final result was multiple air bubbles rising to the top of the
Lastly, we competed in the Chapter Display competition. This event water on three sides of the display.
includes building a promotional exhibit designed and constructed
by SkillsUSA student members. The display articulates a common The students got the gold at the State contest. DACC competed
theme established each year by SkillsUSA. The students must against 12 other displays from throughout the state. Winning this
set up the display and present to a panel of judges. Our 4’x4’x8’ competition allowed them to advance to the National competition,
display built and fabricated in the welding lab using GTAW and located in Kansas City. At the national competition, we competed
GMAW welding processes on square tubing, varying from 1” – 2” against 39 other state winning displays and we won the gold medal,
in size. The students also used the CNC plasma cutter to cut out a making us national champions! I was super proud of the students’
large state of Ohio along with the SkillsUSA logo and emblem. The hard work and dedication to the project and they were elated to win
Welding Lab partnered up with the Auto Collision lab, who put an the top prize. I think it’s awesome to compete against the highest-
awesome paint job on the display, including an “Ohio Flag” theme level of competition and to come out on top just shows how much
on the state of Ohio, and the Career Graphics Lab who helped skill our students actually have! It really couldn’t have gone any
with the signage, pictures and handbook. The “wow” factor of the better.
display included three (3) “bubble walls” fabricated in the welding
lab. Students purchased (3) three polycarbonate channel walls, then PUMPKIN’ CHUNKIN’
took an ice maker water line and drilled 1/16” holes every 1 ¼” I have always been a fan of the Punkin’ Chunkin’ event that is
inch. The drilled water line was placed in the polycarbonate wall shown each year on the Discovery Channel. Each year, around

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