Celebrating Welding and Welders
Welding Month 2023
Article Summary: Welding, Welders and Applications At-a-Glance
Chances are good that you are reading this article because, like many of us, we don’t fully understand or appreciate the welding trade.
In this brief article, we will introduce you to our welders and learn more about their value in a multidiscipline specialty trades environment.
What is Welding?
Welding is a skilled trade that plays a crucial role in structures such as buildings, bridges, pipelines, and other support structures within industrial facilities. The welding process melts two metal parts and fuses them together to create a bond that can withstand the stresses of heavy usage and extreme weather conditions.
Interestingly for the uninitiated, welding equipment does not produce a flame. The brilliant light that we associate with welding is known as an electric arc.
Official certification and best-practices guidance for the welding trade are the purview of the American Welding Society. The organization is also the organizing body of Welding Month.
Benefits of Welding
This fusion process allows builders to create durable structures that are much stronger than joining methods such as bolts or rivets.
Welding can be applied to a variety of metals, including steel, copper and aluminum.
The benefits of these aspects provide strength and flexibility in a wide range of construction applications, especially when a high degree of precision is required.
Precision welding in close proximity to operational manufacturing equipment.
Onsite fabrication of a stairway by SilMan Millwright-Welders.
Welding at SilMan Industries
The welders at SilMan are a part of our Millwright team. Millwrights are multidiscipline mechanical specialists who facilitate the installation, repair, and maintenance of machinery, conveyors, and equipment.
As members of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, Millwrights have access to a national network of training centers to keep their knowledge and skill up-to-date. They can also train to gain additional certifications, such as welding.
This combination of skills is a powerful asset for Team SilMan and is a crucial aspect of the company’s ongoing success. The agility that these multiskilled professionals bring to the job site provides cost and time savings to our clients every day of the week!
Let’s meet two of our SilMan Welders:
Greg Dominguez, Millwright-Welder
We caught up with Greg while he was onsite at a California manufacturing plant to repair equipment damaged by a falling 300 lb block of ice.
He has been with SilMan for just one year. However, he comes to the team with six years of experience.
Dominguez completed his training at the NorCal UBC training center, but his earliest welding experiences were in high school.
His professional training included three courses (intro, mi-level and advanced) and a final test which included two plates with bevel, root pass, groove, and cover pass. All within a 1/8” tolerance. Followed by a four-year apprenticeship.
Greg said,
“Welding has added a lot of variety to my work as a Millwright. It gets me outside my regular role to do something different.”
Millwrights live in their own world, and I can’t imagine a better group to work with than my SilMan team. Everyone works together so we never overload one person, and we share in the hard work.
The combination of Union membership, Welding Certification and SilMan is a a solid package. I can face the future with confidence. I couldn’t ask for anything more.”
Scott Cully, Millwright-Welder
We spoke with Scott while on a weeks-long deployment in San Diego installing a caster deck/vertical lift system on the tarmac of the SD Airport for a leading parcel delivery provider.
He has been with SilMan Industries for 10 years. Before that, he worked closely with a handful of Millwrights who are now senior leaders for SilMan. He was recruited while working as a subcontractor for SilMan at the NUUMI demolition-relocation project for Toyota.
For Cully, welding is baked into his entire life. His father taught welding at a local college, and his uncle owned a welding shop.
With this depth of experience, he passed his certification exam right out of high school.
After serving in the Marine Corps, Scott joined the Millwright trade in Northern California.
Not long ago, Cully considered retirement. But after a period of rest, he missed it!
Scott said:
“Working with the A-Team at SilMan is like a drug. Everything works so smoothly, we get things done, and everybody is happy. I can’t stay away!
Mike Watchers, Labor Representative for SilMan Industries
We contacted Mr. Watchers to reflect on our welding team.
“Coming from the electrical trade, an electrical arc is seen as a serious IDLH – immediately dangerous to life or health – event and would initiate an investigation into the root cause of the arc. As Millwrights and certified welders, team SilMan harnesses and fine tunes that arc, being generated by a welder, to build structurally sound structures or connections that can stand up to the scrutiny of an inspector and/or an X-ray. Over the years, witnessing our welders contort into positions that allow them to gain access to the area needing their skillset, made me truly appreciate their determination, skillset, and drive.”
What are the skills and talents needed to be a successful welder?
While the signature welding helmet and gloves are easily recognizable, the underlying aptitudes of the trade may not be so obvious.
Behind the smoke and flames, and beneath the heavy-duty personal protective equipment, welders must be able to exercise an assortment of physical and mental skills, and of course, work safely.
Here are a few examples of the skills required by a certified welder:
- Strength
- Hand-eye coordination
- Spatial awareness
- Problem-solving
- Attention to detail
Moreover, a welder must possess specific abilities to be successful.
- Read and follow instructions accurately
- Work independently
- Work as a team
Careers in Welding
Taken together, these abilities and attributes can contribute to a rewarding career in the industrial sector. There is no end to the need for welders in the future.
When combined with industrial mechanical skills, like our SilMan Millwright-Welders, their careers taken them far beyond building construction, into the world of highly sophisticate automated environments, serving many of the most prominent manufacturing and supply chain companies in the world!
In the industrial sector in general, certified welders will enjoy increased employment options, higher pay, and promotion opportunities.
Additionally, official certification is a sign of competency and skill, and a point of personal pride.
You may learn more about the Millwright and Welding professions from our Trade partners at the NorCal Carpenters Union.
About SilMan
SilMan Industries (previously SilMan Construction) is based in San Leandro, California.
Founded in 2008, the firm operates nationwide in three divisions – Construction, Material Handling and Site Services – and partners with “best in class” companies in the Industrial, Manufacturing, Distribution, and Public Works sectors.
For more information, please visit www.silmanindustries.com/about.
