The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has launched a program to train inmates in a variety of specialized welding skills that will help them to get jobs when they're parole.

And, to make the training cost-effective, energy-conscious and safe, the department bought 20 computer-reality welding units that simulate welding with a variety of metals and processes and in a variety of conditions and positions.

Inmates throughout the state are using the computer simulation work station to learn a variety of welding skills that are aimed at making them employable in the workforce.

California's Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation purchased 20 SimWelder units from SGI and VRSim, an SGI partner.

SGI Professional Services (www.sgi.com) delivered the 20 units in January, and instructor training was completed by mid-summer. The Department of Corrections' virtual-reality welding programs are to begin soon at 20 separate sites, including high-security prisons to minimum-security facilities. When the programs are launched, they will have 27 students per class.

“There are many benefits to the SimWelder, but I think the main one is the cost-avoidance to the institutions of not having to purchase steel, wire for the wire feeds and the different types of welding rods,” Art Hernandez said. Hernandez is vice principal for vocations for the Office of Correctional Education for California's Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

“There's also savings in electricity. Instead of the high electrical demands needed for regular welding machines, the SimWelder simply needs a 110-V outlet. That's a huge cost savings that's exponential because we're running 20 units, at 20 different institutions,” Hernandez added.

The computer-simulated welding units allow students to enter an interactive, virtual environment that merges computer-generated data with physical props.

By simulating welding, no gas is burned, no metal is consumed, and no waste is created. Additionally, students get more practice passes and instructors get better data.

The SimWelder augments traditional training methods by giving students the opportunity to make significantly higher numbers of welding passes, and giving instructors objective feedback so that they can prepare students to work safely with real materials.

Bob Pette, vice president of visualization and global services for SGI, said he believes that the use of simulation in training will become a growing trend.

“It's a lot cheaper to build a virtual work environment and accelerate training for people, and less costly in the use of materials, power, and all the consumables involved,” Pette said.

State-of-the-art “tactile technology” known as haptics, makes virtual training possible, Pette said.

The most difficult part is developing a haptic device that perfectly simulates the feel or the touch sensation of the actual welding torch.

The device being simulated — a welding torch, for example — must have the real touch or interaction between it and the computer screen to make training effective.

“A joy stick in a sense is a haptic device if you're a pilot, but if you're in construction using a saw or nail gun, or in welding, a joy stick doesn't provide the feel you need to practice,” Pette said.

The haptic welding torch has to look and feel like a real welding torch, and it is a combination of a virtual world and an actual device.

“Once you get the feel down, it feels like you're really welding. The only difference is you can make mistakes and not waste materials,” Pette said.

VRSim personnel trained the traditional welding instructors at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and gave them direction and detailed instructions on how to assemble the machines, load the software, and run the calibrations.

“At the end of the training, I'd say at least 95 percent of the instructors were very positive,” Hernandez said.

“They are really excited about using these machines in the classroom, especially being able to teach muscle memory on carrying a bead, and working with aluminum and light steel,” he said.

An added benefit is that the SimWelder can be used to teach both shielded metal arc welding and gas metal arc welding.

He said his instructors also are looking forward to the Pipefitter-Welder training software that will be available from VRSim next year, because pipefitting is a viable job market and a high-paying job skill for parolees to have.”

With SimWelder, real-time visual cues lead students to better kinesthetic awareness. SimWelder can be customized to enterprise specific parameters such as travel angle, speed, stickout, and weave pattern.

The training system provides objective feedback: Each weld pass creates a detailed report based on empirical data that is specific to the student who makes the weld.

The system operates in Spanish and English, and the company is planning to add languages.

“Based on what I've learned, the SimWelder accelerates the training curve,” James Bruce, vocational vice principal for the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said.

“We're anxious to find out what kind of reduction we'll have in training time. We would like to send inmates back to the community prepared for parole, prepared to secure a job and prepared to become productive members of our society,” he added.

Bruce said he expects the SGI-VRSim SimWelder ultimately will result in having more students certified in the various American Welding Society standards before their parole.

A steel workers union in the San Francisco Bay area and a shipyard in San Diego have told the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation that they would be interested in hiring welding graduates as well as some of the other vocational trades the department teaches, he added.

SGI's Pette said that he hopes his company's product makes a difference in helping to rehabilitate prisoners and making them ready to re-enter society with marketable skills.

“If you're going to rehabilitate people, you've got to give them skills, and the prison system is another vocational training institution. The desire to learn is greater however, because people want to get out of prison and get a job,” said Pette.

A Welder Training Success Story: Folsom State Prison

Welding training is a major success story at California's Folsom State Prison — Greystone Adult School.

Robert F. Purvis, a certified welding instructor and vocational welding instructor at the school, is a former ironworker whose calling now is to help prisoners find meaningful work when they are released from prison. And Purvis is proud of the welding program's contribution to helping to make life on the outside better for so many.

“In the general population, the recidivism rate runs about 65 to 70 percent, but for those who've gone through our welding program, it's less than 5 percent,” Purvis said.

“Once they get a taste of a good job making good money, they don't want to come back here,” he added.

Many men who go through the welding program at Folsom Prison have been through the prison system's revolving door several times.

“They call it life on the installment system. Giving the men a good-paying trade prevents that,” Purvis said.

Specializing in welding for the construction trades, Purvis has developed a good relationship with the International Association of Ironworkers.

Union members come to the prison to talk to the prisoners about the welding trade — the skills they need to get into the trade, the work ethic they need, and the fact that there is regular drug testing for all the workers in the trade.

“If the guys who participate in the program can receive qualification in both stick and flux core welding, the ironworkers will guarantee them a place in the union's apprenticeship program. They'll go to the front of the line,” Purvis said.

“They know they've got a fighting chance once they're on the outside. The guys that have gone before them have made a good name for themselves and the prison program. The ironworkers' union knows that when they come out of our program, they have a good work ethic, good technical skills and know welding theory such as blueprint reading and basic metallurgy,” he added.

Purvis said his reward comes when the guys call him or write him a letter, telling him how much they've gained through his dedication to the program, and how well they're doing on the job.

Purvis tells of one young man who entered the prison system as a teenager, and did 17 years. Before his release, he got into the welding program. Today, he is with the Ironworkers Local 433 working on a high-rise building.

“He called me on his cell phone from the 37th floor to tell me how much he loves it,” Purvis said. “He's a great kid, and this is truly a success story. Learning welding has given him a whole different mindset,” he added.

Purvis said he loves the success stories because they help to keep the program alive and give him factual cases for those times when he has to ask for money for welding rods and steel.

There are also some women's programs too, at a women's prison.

“Welding is a good trade for women too, especially if they have no skills, no education, and a couple of kids waiting for them, welding is great way to go,” Purvis said.