WIRE NEWS WN MAY 2017 | Page 10

Lincoln Electric and AACC Celebrate National Welding Month with The Future of Welding Summit 2017 Community College Educators Attended Educational Sessions and Discussions at the Company’s Global Headquarters Lincoln Electric®, along with the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) and the National Coalition of Advanced Technology Centers (NCATC), hosted The Future of Welding Summit 2017 this week at the company’s headquarters near Cleveland. More than 55 representatives from 40 technical and community colleges representing 20 different states, as well as the American Welding Society (AWS), attended the two-day conference where they learned about the latest welding technologies and education tools. The summit kicked off on April 5 with an evening reception and opening welcome remarks at the Wyndham Hotel in downtown Cleveland. The WN MAY 2017 10 following day, participants traveled to Lincoln Electric’s headquarters, where they attended sessions on mechanized systems for pipe-shop welding, robotic systems for controlled aluminum welding and compact multi-process advanced welding systems for schools or shops. They also learned how Lincoln Electric’s Power Wave® welders equipped with web-based CheckPoint™ production monitoring software can assist manufacturing operations, or even schools, with verifying arc time, wire usage and other factors from multiple weld stations. “The Welding Summit was an amazing chance to experience the ‘Disneyland of welding’ in person,” says attendee Tom Crampton, executive dean, regional technology initiatives, Mott Community College in Flint, Michigan. “Seeing the different types of welding education tools gives me