Thermal Spray Sector, Help!

Who presently offers any type of training beyond a one or two day seminar on Thermal Spray?

AWS and AMS offer some introductory one and two day classes but these are certainly inadequate for meeting the needs of operators.  Even one week is inadequate.  In the blog by David Hernandez regarding preparation for CWI “How to Prepare for the Certified Welding Inspector Exam Part 6: Do I Need the Pre-Seminar?”, it was noted that most participants indicated that they needed “more than a singe week of training”.  The same is true for Thermal Spray.

It is going to take time and effort on the part of the industry, but some program really needs to be started with a goal of training and certification of Thermal Spray Operators.  This is going to take some time (probably a year of two to get going) and involvement (Volunteers needed) to bring to fruition.

Here are some thoughts:

  1. See if the CWI On Line Course and the information from the canceled SME certification program can be worked together to develop an on-line Thermal Spray course through AWS.
  2. See if some of those who benefit (profit) from thermal spray (GE, P&W, etc.) can talk to the institutions that provided their certified welders about adding on an introductory course on thermal spray.

Other suggestions and comments are most welcome.

Dale Moody