Production engineering students on training day at ABICOR BINZEL

After a long time of online theory, finally live knowledge transfer again – that's what 10 students of the Production Engineering course at the University of Bremen thought and followed the invitation of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Emil Schubert to the ABICOR BINZEL headquarters in Buseck during their summer semester. The Technical Managing Director of ABICOR BINZEL, who is also known as WELDPROF, wanted to make welding technology, which has only been taught in theory up to now, tangible for the prospective specialists. The best thing about it: welding know-how was not only explained and demonstrated, but everyone was also challenged to weld themselves. For some, it was the first time they had held a welding torch in their hands.

A day peppered with practice

After a brief presentation of the company and the ABICOR BINZEL product portfolio in the showroom by Prof. Dr. Emil Schubert, the excursion for the first part of the practical day led to the manual welding stations in the ABICOR BINZEL Innovation and Technology Centre ITC. Everyone was able to practise welding there on a welding simulator with the help of augmented reality. In the manual welding room of the ITC, the processes MAG with steel welding and MIG with aluminum welding as well as TIG using a chrome-nickel alloy were explained.

The students were introduced to the different welding processes and learned a lot about their respective advantages and disadvantages as well as the fields of application. The different types of welding arcs were also explained and that they can be distinguished by the sound of the arc. The students switched between the stations in small groups and each of them also got to do some practical welding themselves. The unanimous tenor of the manual welding was: This is much more complicated than expected and actually a matter of practice. The good thing about it: the students' welds became better and better thanks to the tips and direct interaction with the practitioners from ABICOR BINZEL.

Interesting, diverse automated demonstrations

Automated welding processes were the focus of the afternoon. The programming and handling of a cobot was presented on a dummy component and, in comparison, the process with an industrial robot was carried out on the same component. Furthermore, there was a Visometry demonstration – a software for comparing CAD data with real components – to make deviations visible.

We could have welded all day long

What all students became aware of was a variety of completely different components such as aluminum boxes, bicycle racks, various components from the automotive industry and some more: Arc welding covers a very wide range of application fields. Everything that the participants had previously only known from theory was put into practice with great enthusiasm.

Jan Pitzer, welding engineer and ITC Team Leader at ABICOR BINZEL, who had planned the day's schedule with his team in a very well thought-out and interesting way, sums up: " They showed so much interest in the practical side of welding that we could have welded all day. There were a lot of good questions asked and just as much discussion among each other and it was obvious that there was a lot of interest. If a participant wanted to know what would happen if ... we said: Let's try it. The many practical applications were very valuable for the participants on this day, and it was a mutual learning experience."

At the end of this eventful practical training day, Prof. Dr. Emil Schubert pointed out the possibilities offered by ABICOR BINZEL to students for internships and final theses. These are the first points of contact for young people from universities to get an insight into the working world and to build up and expand networks. The WELDPROF and the ITC trio, Jan Pitzer, Dieter Kocab and Guiseppe Ravano, who accompanied the day, would like to see more such internship units for prospective specialists and managers in the future, because everyone involved had great fun. There is no better place to put theory into practice than in a company like ABICOR BINZEL, where development, production, sales and service work closely together.