Lincoln Electric Opens New Welding Technology & Training Center
Lincoln Electric held an open house and ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the grand opening of its new Welding Technology & Training Center in Cleveland. The center focuses on training welding educators, engineers and industrial professionals who are advancing welding in schools and industry globally. The center also provides advanced technical welding training for professionals, as well as a comprehensive portfolio of educational solutions that can be used to launch welding training at customers’ own facilities.
The education portfolio includes an extensive educational curriculum, virtual reality and technology-assisted training tools, industry-leading welding and cutting solutions and robotic cells.
“Our new Center is a strategic investment to help our customers and educational partners grow using leading solutions,” said Christopher Mapes, chairman, president and CEO of Lincoln Electric. “Our educational offering and leadership in automation solutions provide meaningful solutions to address the skills gap and capacity constraints facing customers in our industry.”
“We are committed to providing students and customers with the relevant skills and knowledge needed to support career and technical schools, advanced manufacturing and infrastructure growth,” said Jason Scales, business manager, education, Lincoln Electric. “Our education model will shape the next generation of welders, managers and industry leaders.”
Located on the campus of Lincoln Electric’s headquarters in Cleveland, the new 130,000-square-foot facility represents a $30 million investment in training. It features 166 welding and cutting booths, a virtual reality training lab with 10 VRTEX virtual reality welding simulators, as well as extensive seminar and welding school classroom space, a 100-seat auditorium. Later this year the center will become an American Welding Society accredited testing facility.
About the Author
Michael Roth
Editor
Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.