Welding Digest

Hypertherm Associates, a U.S. based manufacturer of industrial cutting products and software, is now accepting applications for its Spark Something Great educational grant program. The program, now in its tenth year, will provide 12 North American schools with a Powermax45 XP air plasma system and in-person training from a Hypertherm product expert.

The Spark Something Great grant program is meant to support the next generation of welders and metal fabricators by making the newest generation of plasma cutting equipment and standardized instruction available to schools. To date, the company has awarded systems to 88 schools. Hypertherm will collect applications from March 11 through March 30, and grant decisions will be communicated by May 1.

“The current skills gap and labor shortage has placed increased demand on North American vocational schools,” said Stephen Bruner, who manages Hypertherm Associates’ educational program. “An influx of new students coupled with teacher shortages mean you have fewer instructors teaching more students without a corresponding increase in equipment. We’ve encountered numerous programs in which dozens, and sometimes hundreds, of students are forced to share a single system. Our program hopes to help those schools by providing a versatile system instructors can use to teach handheld and mechanized cutting, as well as applications such as gouging, flush cutting and marking.”

In addition to the grant program, Hypertherm Associates will continue to make all ten hours of its AWS SENSE approved Plasma Cutting Technology: Theory and Practice curriculum available for free download to teachers. The curriculum covers the plasma cutting process, common industrial uses for plasma systems, the differences between various cutting methods, safety procedures, as well as proper setup and operation. Electronic versions of each lesson, a facilitator’s guide, student workbook, and supporting reference material are all available on the Hypertherm website.