Roy Lanier instructs Michael Howard as he sets up an oxyfuel cutting torch.

At Pitt Community College, Greenville, N.C., welding students start with the oxyfuel process one hour a day for 16 weeks to learn how to cut and prep workpieces.

Advanced welding students hone gas-tungsten-arc welding skills at Pitt Community College.

At welding student at Pitt Community College uses the oxyfuel process to repair a frame.

Local shops donate plate, rods, parts of trucks and tractors, cast pieces, and alloy parts to the welding lab for students to cut, weld and often repair.

A final test for one of Roy Lanier's welding classes was a pig roast. His students had to figure out how to repair the rusted out bottom of a pig roaster and Lanier thought that there was only one way to make sure the repair was successful.

Other students may not have had such a tasty final exam, but when they left Lanier's courses at Pitt Community College, they left as welders. Lanier's students work on projects for their school. They have designed and fabricated baseball batting cages and a five-by-ten foot holding cell with a bed for the community college's basic law enforcement program.

When they are not working on school projects, they can work in the "goody yard" for the school's welding program. That yard has plates and rods, parts of trucks and tractors, cast metal parts and parts made of a variety of metal alloys that students can cut or weld or try their had at repairing. Local welding shops donate the items in the yard. Lanier tries to keep a variety of materials and parts there to challenge his students and to give them experiences that they will see when they join the workforce.

Lanier is chairman of the Welding Department at Pitt Community College. He has taught students how to weld for more than 30 years in the Greenville, N.C., school, and has tailored training for metal fabrication companies. Often, when a fabrication shop in eastern North Carolina needs a welder or when a welder needs a job, Lanier gets a call.

"I start with oxyfuel one hour a day for 16 weeks so the student learns how to cut and prep workpieces," says Lanier. "The student has to set the torches and cut various thickness of clean and dirty metal — just like the real world. My test is choosing the right tip for a 0.031-inch thick steel."

Students practice with a mix of equipment in the community college's John Roberts Welding Laboratory. The lab is part of the welding and masonry building, a 10,750-square-foot facility opened at the school in 1993. Lanier taught high school welding before joining Pitt Community College.

The school's welding technology curriculum includes science, welding technology and welding applications to develop industry-standard skills for employment in the welding and metal industry. Courses range from math, blueprint reading, and metallurgy to welding inspection, and destructive and non-destructive testing. Students take classes in consumable and nonconsumable electrode welding and cutting processes, and full-time students can complete the welding program in five semesters.

The program includes diplomas for basic and advanced welding and certificates for basic welding, shieldedmetalarc (SMAW), gas-metal-arc (GMAW), and gas-tungsten-arc welding (GTAW), plus pipe welding, and welding blue print reading.

After students have their lessons in oxyfuel cutting, they move on to brazing, then welding. When a student shows he knows the process, he moves on to other processes. Advanced students get lessons in GTAW, GMAW and SMAW. The lab includes combination GMAW and SMAW welding booths and GTAW booths.

Just as with the different things in the "goody yard," Lanier maintains a variety of processes in the lab because he wants to match industry tools. Students learn to cut metal with plasma-arc torches, band and circular saws, and carbon-arc gouging torches. They run beads with power sources that range in age from a 30-year-old transformer to a one-year-old inverter. The welding lab also houses the local AWS section library, and it is available for both students and local AWS members. Lanier is a long-time member of the AWS, and has held several section and district positions.

Welding students also learn how to maintain a 1949 Niagara Sheer, run electrical tests on transformers, and operate software programs on new equipment. "Some of these new machines are so complex that it takes an act of congress and two little children to set them up," says Lanier, with a slight smile.

Cross Training
Team work is part of the teaching method at Pitt. Derik Hunter, department chair for Mechanical Engineering Technology, and Tony Gallardo from the Industrial Construction Technology Department and Industrial Technology Systems Department work with Lanier to instruct students on related fields.

Some of classes meet in the school's 32,300-square-foot, A.B. Whitley Building that provides space for machining technology, electronic servicing, electronic engineering technology, architectural technology, manufacturing engineering technology and industrial construction technology.

"We have a CNC turning center, pick and place robots, and milling machines. We work with engineered materials, even plastics, because of area businesses," says Hunter, adding that he and Lanier are planning to add lessons in robotic welding to the curriculum.

The department has a metallurgical lab, where welding students bring their coupons for testing, and heat treat equipment.

Schedules for Day and Night
As part of his efforts to make individuals productive through welding classes, Lanier oversees a flexible program that includes teaching classes at one of the local high schools. Currently 34 high school students, as part of their high school metals trade program, are earning credit at the community college.

"We have two-hour classes at night, either two or four nights a week, so guys can fit the classes around their day jobs and families." says Lanier. Three instructors split the duties between the day, night and Saturday classes. Four adjunct instructors teach the night courses.

Earning a certificate in GMAW, thin gage stainless steel, aluminum, or GTAW can help students who are aiming for particular jobs, and the combination of high school students, traditional community college students and welders who are seeking to upgrade their skills has helped everyone. "One older guy didn't like the jabber in class. He told the younger guys that passing this class would mean an extra $2 an hour in his paycheck. The young guys listened to him," Lanier says.

About 5 percent of Lanier's students earn an associate degree, and some return to school after working for a few years.

"One recent improvement is Mrs. Rosa Brewington, administrative assistant, who has become a mother figure for some of the young men, after I growl at them," says Lanier. She also counsels the women students.

Lanier maintains relationships with welding and fabricating shops in eastern North Carolina to set up co-op programs and to evaluate his students. Guys looking for work often call Lanier. "I try to help each one. It's a courtesy of the craft," he says.

"We've designed the classes to match the demand in the Greenville area," says Lanier. Most graduates of the welding program start as entrylevel technicians in welding and metal working industries. Many built careers in construction, manufacturing, fabrication, sales, quality control, supervision, and welding-related self-employment.

Pitt Community College was founded as the Pitt Industrial Education Center in 1961. It now has about 10,000 students who can choose from 44 associate degree programs, numerous certificate programs, 22 diploma programs and 18 college transfer programs.

For more information call: Pitt Community College, Greenville, N.C. (252) 493-7200, www.pittcc.edu