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AHS Welding Students Visit Gulf Marine Fabricators
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Lowell Woodward,Saul Ordonez, Hector Mora of GMF, Caleb McBride, Kurt Foret of GMF, Johnny Ordonez and Colton Woodward
April 3, 2009 Alpine High School welding students visited Gulf Marine Fabricator-owned by Gulf Island Fabricators. GMF is a worldwide leader in offshore drilling technology having fabricated some of the largest offshore drilling facilities in the world. Students took a tour of the Ingleside facility and were able to see:
- Pipe Mill rolling-rollers roll up to 6” thick plate to form the cylinders called cans.
- Fabrication shop where large massive parts for the components of the platform are fabricated.
- The fabrication yard where the cans are joined to form the structure supports.
- The construction yard in Ingleside next to the ship channel
- The Special Lifting Device capable of lifting 4000 tons.
Of the experience for his students, Mr. Bullock, AHS welding teacher states, “There are those who can weld and then there are those who are welders. AHS has the avenues to prepare both.
“The welding industry is going to be healthy a long time and the careers available are phenomenal. Students can see only a very small segment of the welding industry in the high school welding shop. Experiencing industry up close and personal allows them to broaden their vision while they are in school and not sure what they want to do.
“All of education is to prepare an individual to go to work. GMF represents the welding industry, but also shows the importance of integrity, competition, quality, and incentive for a job a well done and last but certainly not least the high emphasis upon worker safety.
“I want my students to experience reality, and this is definitely the way it is done in the real world. Everything in education has its focus on places like GMF. Proper grammar, accurate math, science, the arts involved in the ingenuity even the extra-curricular competition spins off into such a massive project as the MINDOC spar platform.”
Weighing in at 29,000 tons and tethered to the sea floor in 7000 feet of depth, Mindoc is the latest technology for recovery of energy at deep depths.
Bullock continues, “This is the reason for having welding technology at AHS. I want your students, some of the best kids in the state, to have the same opportunities as kids in the larger districts have to excel and see what life is all about. I dream of a facility here in Alpine, a Career Center, in partnership with large companies, that will prepare our students in the tri-county area to go to work in such a healthy industry.
“We could do this. Industry would have direct input in setting completion requirements. Kurt Foret, general yard superintendent, and Hector Mora, general welding superintendent of GMF, welcomed AHS warmly and openly knowing that the future of the company rests in the ability of schools to adequately and genuinely prepare students to go to work for them. AHS is about excellence, and we should get along great with companies like Gulf Marine Fabricators.”
Caleb McBride, Colton Woodward, Johnny Ordonez, and Saul Ordonez standing atop their superior trailer
AHS Students Receive A State Superior Rating
Alpine High School’s Colton Woodward, Johnny Ordonez (trailer fabricators) Saul Ordonez (voting delegate), Caleb McBride (alternate) their advisor Ray Bullock along with parent sponsor Lowell Woodward attended the State SkillsUSA leadership and skills conference in Corpus Christi April 1-4. These young men received a state superior rating on the 12000 GVW -18’ bumper pull trailer, scoring 90 points out of 100. Their project was judged on its own merit and not in comparison. Students are required to create and judged on a notebook that must document the welding processes involved, tools, materials, a working drawing and written steps of how the project was built.
Additionally the project is judged on its workmanship including the following: Do the welds conform to industry standards? Is the fabrication and layout correct? Has there been genuine thought and ingenuity in the design? Does it present the standard of quality that is required in the welding industry? Out of 1,400 other projects, AHS students produced a project that was rated as one of the superior projects by its own merit.
Alpine High School has consistently proven itself as a genuine quality program in the state. Its students have a great reputation for producing not only quality welders, but also Alpine students have a reputation for producing quality work. The way in which AHS students conduct themselves at these competitions has always been something that has impressed people across the state.
The welding program is built on the objective of the importance of doing the job right.