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1. Narrowing the Manufacturing Skills Gap with Welding Training Classes

   May 20, 2013 12:56 pm Leave a Comment

   For more than a year now, manufacturers across the U.S. have been facing a skills gap: There just aren’t enough skilled workers available today to fill key manufacturing jobs – welders, machinists, industrial machinery mechanics, etc. According to one recent poll by Industry Week, more than half of the manufacturers surveyed said, “We need skilled workers today…” and another 28% said, “We’re okay now but the future is troubling.”

   Another report by the American Enterprise Institute earlier this year said we will be facing “a future high-skills gap in manufacturing that could approach 875,000 machinists, welders, industrial engineers, and industrial machinery mechanics by 2020…” 875,000? That’s a lot of open jobs that will be waiting to be filled! Even as the economy continues to slowly recover, the manufacturing skills gap will continue to grow unless more people start to get the proper training they need to master specialized skills and to obtain the required certifications.

   At Sutton-Garten, we believe we’re doing our part to narrow the manufacturing skills gap: We offer hands-on welding training classes. The types of classes range from introductory courses for individuals and groups to specialized/customized classes and training for companies doing all types of welding. We also offer certifications for MIG, TIG, and stick welding.

   In addition to our welding training classes, our commitment to welding education extends to high schools in the area. Sutton-Garten proudly sponsors teams in the AWS Midwest Team Welding Competition each year. As proud U.S. manufacturers, we are doing our best to improve the current and future state of manufacturing.

    

2. The Year Ahead

   February 11, 2013 4:50 pm Leave a Comment

   2012 was a great year here at Sutton-Garten with record sales in almost every category – welding machines, filler metals, rentals and gases.

   As we look forward to the year ahead, we hope that sales growth continues. Change continues in almost all of our markets, including:

   Welding Machinery – New and better equipment continues to be introduced by the manufacturers. Miller has exciting new products to enable faster production rates and higher quality. With the continuing shortage of qualified welders, the new equipment makes it easier to obtain the quality welds you need in your processes. Hypertherm has continued their improvements in plasma cutting equipment with the introduction of the Powermax 105 and MaxPro 200. Their HyDefinition products give laser-like quality at substantial cost savings.

   Filler Metals – Suppliers continue to develop new welding filler metals that give higher deposition rates with existing machines. Flux cored wires from Alloy Rods and Lincoln can replace hard wires and give much higher weld speeds and lower overall costs.

   Helium supply – The availability of helium has gotten somewhat better even though pricing continues to be quite high. We have locked in a supply of high quality helium that will take care of existing customers, and allow some growth. We will also continue to work with customers in changing their process so they can eliminate helium and use lower cost gases that give the same or improved results.

   Beverage gases and Dry Ice – Our CO2 Division continues to grow and a new long-term supply agreement will stabilize our pricing. We have doubled our dry ice capacity and continue to supply “the freshest and best dry ice in town.”

   Welding Classes – Our Welding Classes and Certification testing have been very popular with existing and new customers. Give us a call for any of your weld training and testing needs.

   We are looking forward to making 2013 another year of record sales and hope to bring in even more new customers. Wish us luck on our resolutions and make sure to check in for more news!

    

    

    

3. Welding a Class Load of New Welders

   October 18, 2012 11:19 am Leave a Comment

   MIG welding. TIG welding. Stick welding. Oxy-fuel and plasma cutting. Though each welding process differs slightly from one another, they all have one thing in common: we are experts at all of them. For years, we have provided the welding industry with a wide variety of welding and cutting equipment and rental and repair services. Why limit our welding knowledge only to the technology? That is precisely the reason we decided to offer welding certification and training classes.

   

   What do these classes cover? The welding basics:

   • Equipment setup. How do the machines for the various welding processes work?
   • What are base and filler metals, and how do you select the appropriate ones?
   • Introduction to metal alloys: We cover all metals from aluminum to mild steel and stainless steel.
   • Base metal cleaning and preparation.
   • Looking for a specific certification? We can train to AWS and ASME welding codes. Not to mention, we will show you how to test the equipment to ensure it is continuously meeting these standards.

   Not only will you get specific instructions in the introductory and advanced level classes, but you will also have the opportunity to work on individual projects. Our instructors are all certified welding inspectors by the American Welding Society. Want to sign up for a class? See our website for more information!