Welding engineer

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Hey guys, is there anyone here that is a welding engineer? If so could you tell me what that is like,what the hardest part is, and advice on college? thanks.
Reply:Based on the weld Engineers, I have known and work with or for: Ohio State, LeTourneau, Ferris State and Colorado Schoolof Mines. Can not tell you the hardest part. Any B. Eng. degree requires calculas.
Reply:Originally Posted by mitch93Hey guys, is there anyone here that is a welding engineer? If so could you tell me what that is like, what the hardest part is, and advice on college? thanks.
Reply:Originally Posted by mitch93Hey guys, is there anyone here that is a welding engineer? If so could you tell me what that is like,what the hardest part is, and advice on college? thanks.
Reply:This thread is a good start:  http://weldingweb.com/vbb/showthread.php...highlight=pennObewan is right about some companies wanting an engineering degree, not engineering technology, but for welding, NASA wasn't one of them (they offered me a job with a technology degree anyways!)  Some prefer just the opposite, as they need field guys more than they need theory guys.  As for the hardest part of being a welding engineer?  That's easy.  Dealing with the office politics, and trying to convince the old-timers that just because they've been doing it "that way for over 40 years" doesn't mean there is a better alternative.  Sure, the technical work is difficult, but it gets easier with experience.
Reply:Originally Posted by SupeThis thread is a good start:  http://weldingweb.com/vbb/showthread.php...highlight=pennObewan is right about some companies wanting an engineering degree, not engineering technology, but for welding, NASA wasn't one of them (they offered me a job with a technology degree anyways!)  Some prefer just the opposite, as they need field guys more than they need theory guys.  As for the hardest part of being a welding engineer?  That's easy.  Dealing with the office politics, and trying to convince the old-timers that just because they've been doing it "that way for over 40 years" doesn't mean there is a better alternative.  Sure, the technical work is difficult, but it gets easier with experience.
Reply:I am not a welding engineer, but I teach engineers to weld.  I don't know of a 4 year ABET welding program that actually teaches you to weld. The closest is to get a welding Engineering technology degree and then transfer to an ABET engineering program.      The closest used to be the Welding Engineering Technology degree from Utah State University, that was transferred to Weber State University in Ogden Utah. USU alums work in every industry in almost every state and many other countries. They were trained as welders certified all positions all processes, with underwater, x-ray , ndt, and corrosion certs, they took the normal university general education classes. Welding classes, electronics, machine shop, robotics and cnc, woodworking and carpentry, construction, metalurgy, statics, dynamics, strength of materials, composites, chemistry, corrosion, structural, boiler, and shipbuilding code classes, Buisiness and a few more. The lab was 12,000 square feet of the best welding equipment you could want, Everything in the miller catalog, we were a miller training site. (and had a lot of other brands) Even a 23 foot deep dive tank suits, helmets intercoms the works, (underwater mig anyone? tig?) . Those that worked with it considered it to be one of the hardest curriculums in the college of engineering. The last 5 guys all went out at more than $63,000 a year, 2003 dollars.  The program was dumped on orders of a state senator  who thought welding was just smoke and sparks.  (my work toys are the leftover dregs of the shop, now an 8,000 sqft prototype shop.)    Check out Weber State,  that is where the program went, see what they have. Last I visited they had a great program.    Find a good acredited 2 or 4 year welding school, DOUBLE CHECK the accreditation, you want the credits to transfer!!!  NOT A VOCATIONAL CERTIFICATE PROGRAM! check by calling a major state university and see if all your transcript would transfer. Then go through the welding program, it is best if it is an ABET accredited program. but you must get an associates degree if 2 year, and a batchelors from a 4 year program. That gets the welding out of the way. Then find an ABET metalurgy, ME,  or civil engineering program.              When you have the welding and the ABET degree, then you can register as a PE and get authorized to stamp drawings, work anywhere, on anything.      You will never regret your education.Last edited by wesdavidson; 05-15-2009 at 06:50 PM.past work toys; lathes,mills, drills, saws,  robots, lasers ironworker, shears, brake, press, grinders, tensile tester,  torches, tigs, migs, sticks, platten table, positioner,  plasmas , gleeble and spot. Retired June 30, 2009.
Reply:do you get more money if your a welding engineer? Also my teacher is telling my to Go to Penn State and they start welding of with Gas welding....ughi had to do that for a half a year in HS and a semester in college
Reply:More money for a WE?  Perhaps, but some weldors do quite well.  It really depends on what career path you prefer and are able to pursue.WE's probably average $60-$85K.  However, there are some who head to management.  I was qualfied for one manager of welding engineering job that paid $135K (with a bonus).  It is way more than I am currently making, but I did not apply because it was in Buffalo, NY, and I love living in Florida.  There is more to life than money.  LOL.Weldors start around $40K average.  But, the highest pay is for pipline rig weldors who have their own trucks.  They can haul down over $100K, but they have to live in the field in work camps or in motels, and are always away from home.Then there is consulting work.  If you get a PE and become a consultant, you can write your own ticket.  The WE consultants in Orlando, FL bill at $200-$300 an hour.  Realize that it is possible to earn a PhD in Welding Engineering, and the level of difficulty and scientific learning at the top ranks with the medical profession.As for some of the other comments, LeTourneau is ABET accredited, and has hands on welding labs.  But, they don't "teach" you to weld.  You are on your own in the labs.  It is do or die.  You either have the talent to make it on the first or second try or you don't.  Some of the "vocational" welding schools give months of practice and learning time, and it may take that long to learn pipe welding.  That was the weakness in my program.  I did not learn pipe welding.   But, I have never been required to know pipe welding.  Currently, I am a tube welding engineer, but it is all automated work.  I excell at it because I also have a  BS in Computer Science and Robotics.
Reply:You can learn everything with tig you could learn with gas - how to watch your puddle, how to watch your heat, control, penetration. Gas is good for some things. If you have spent multiple weeks welding with gas, go to a different school. This one is either unable or unwilling, or perhaps unequipped,  to teach at a pace that will allow you to learn what you need to know. I get maybe an hour to teach an engineering student how to tig weld steel, usually 15 minutes, same for aluminum. 5 minutes for mig with steel. I teach about 150 to 200 students per year. This doesn't include practice or troubleshooting time. I also have to cover mills, lathes, - the whole shop.     Yes I am opinionated. I have watched way too many engineers graduate who are dangerous. I can't save them all.  I have watched way too many teachers graduate without skills. I have trained A&P students who could kill 200 people by leaving a cotter pin out, We train them NOT to kill people. Welding is just as important! Quality matters. Sloppy teaching is outright fraud.     You can make a LOT more money over a career as an engineer. your career can easily last 40 to 50 productive usefull fullfilling years. If you know how to really weld and engineer, then you will be in high demand, and highly respected. A GOOD welder is a craftsman of the highest order, he will know more metalurgy than a mechanical engineer, and more about structures than many civil engineers. He will make welds that will preserve life, and he will save the n##s of a lot of engineers who should have been trained better. If you are also a registered professional engineer and can weld, than you can show the guys on the floor what they should be doing, and sign off designs and procedures. A good welding engineer not only welds, he designs the welded article, the boiler, the locomotive, the rocket. Yes, I have built rockets, and rebuilt helicopters, and airplanes. He will design the welding machines, he will design the filler metals, he will decide where and at what temperature the weld will be laid in. He work will go into space, and under water, and fly a million miles on an airliner, without a failure. He will evaluate accidents, and failures and design repairs.      The difference is, do you want to set the procedures, or have them set them for you?       What do you want to do? I have a 2 year degree, I have run a lab at a research university for the last 6 years, worked training engineers and airplane mechanics and teachers for 20, built rockets, shuttle payloads and space telescopes before that. I introduced CNC milling machines in a major star wars research lab, integrated the cad system with the shop proceedures. Parts of the James Webb space telescope are being made in a research autoclave that I designed and constructed, the JWT  will replace the Hubble. I built a lab where nickel aluminide coated graphite fibers were developed, and helped build a copy of the Wright Flyer that has flown over 400 times and was on the history channel. I have given hundreds  written tests to pilots and mechanics. And worked on dozens of other projects.  Students that I helped teach work on aircraft around the world, fight wars on every continent, work in the space program, build shuttle tanks, boosters and engines.  And weld in every industry. Now, with all that I wish I had finished the 4 year degree! I wish I had the masters and the doctorate! I am being retired because I do not have the paper credentials that I should have earned.       I wish I could get a hold of every high school kid and ask "what do you want to do?" and then tell them to get the degree and do it.       I will not speak ill of a teacher, but, I have also trained tech ed teachers for a few years. They do not get a lot of instruction in the core subject that they teach. This year the future tech ed teachers in a major university had 2 days, about 6 hrs in the weld lab. This is all that they will recieve. They used to be required to have 2 semesters.They barely figured out which end of the metal gets hot. ( They are better off however than a civil engineering PHD candidate which asked me "is arc welding a chemical process? is that where the sparks come from". No kidding, and he may design a bridge one day.) They will be certified as "High school shop teachers" If they are certified teachers they have taken LOTS of education classes, lots of general ed, and one or two low level classes in their subject. It is the fault of the education system. Not the teacher.  Usually they are constrained by budgets, and by what they were taught. If they are expert at their field it isn't their universities fault.        If you can find a good teacher , wring him dry and find another one. I have worked with fantastic teachers, and some that were dumber than dirt. There are good teachers out there, base your choice of school on the teachers first, curriculum second, equipment third.       Now find a school, go. finish. get a job. Enjoy       Lecture over.past work toys; lathes,mills, drills, saws,  robots, lasers ironworker, shears, brake, press, grinders, tensile tester,  torches, tigs, migs, sticks, platten table, positioner,  plasmas , gleeble and spot. Retired June 30, 2009.
Reply:I am currently going to Penn College for Welding and Fabrication Engineering. Our program is very well know for the hands on experience provided to students.
Reply:Perhaps I am a bit tardy in responding, but I do not believe that any Ohio State WE's have responded to this. Having graduated from the Ohio State University's WE program, I can tell you a few things:1. What is it like being a Welding Engineer? It is truly anything you want it to be. Might sound cliche, but it's the absolute truth. I know welding engineers, like myself, involved in R&D and others who have become geoligists scanning the US for oil. Welding engineering, as a discipline, includes a wide array of specialties. In my line of work, I do something different every day. I am currently involved in projects which involve welding on aerospace alloys, traditional power plant steels and dissimilar metal welds. In the past year, I have been to China, Austria, Florida, California, West Virginia and North Carolina (just to name a few). I have had the fortunate experience to present papers and presentations at prestigious conferences in the USA and been able to meet the brightest and most knowledgeable individuals in the welding world. Again, as I said, your experience is completely up to you. 2. The hardest part of being a welding engineer (and the best thing, ironically) is being one-of-a-kind. There are not many people who have the knowledge or experience that welding engineers do. Thus, it is crucial to know the right people in the work environment. The hardest part about college was taking two full years of pre-requisite courses such as physics, chemistry, and calculus (through differential equations and statistics). Once you get into the major, the welding engineering classes are relatively easy - the materials science classes can be very tough, such as thermodynamics. Regardless, college is not easy, period. 3. My advice on college - Of course I'm going to recommend Ohio State. It is the only ABET accredited program in North America and a degree from Ohio State is highly recognized and highly sought after. Someone here mentioned that the differnece between Ohio State and other colleges is a theoretical eduation versus a practical education. While I would agree to this in a very general way, your practical experience will come when you intern or co-op at a company. The most important thing is not the education itself in my opinion. It is the work experience you get in college. I had the opportunity to co-op (work full-time) for Special Metals, intern at the Ohio Department of Transportation and intern at the Edison Welding Institute. My senior project was also highly valuable, as the company I did research for ended up hiring me. Thus, regardless of where you might chose, make sure you get as much welding experience in college as you can. This will pay dividends for you in the long-run. Companies now need Welding Engineers regardless of college education. At my company, the engineering workforce is extremely old and close to retirement - many companies face this situation. This is an advantage to you - a welding degree from any college is going to attract attention. The average salary for a welding engineer when I graduated was in the $58,000 range. Salary will depend on location, type of work and the company need.
Reply:Originally Posted by OSU_WE3. My advice on college - Of course I'm going to recommend Ohio State. It is the only ABET accredited program in North America and a degree from Ohio State is highly recognized and highly sought after.
Reply:Colorado School of Mines has an excellent reputation for welding engineering and metallurgy.  Look at the AWS Welding Journal supplement technical papers and papers presented at the annual AWS Convention, there is a huge percent of authors from CSM.CSM It is located in Golden Colorado, home of Coors Brewery, just outside Denver.   As a matter of fact, this whole area around Denver is one of the highest concentrations of the best micro and pub breweries in the US, and home of the annual Great American Beer festival, and home of the American Home Brewers Association.14,000 foot mountains within 2 hrs drive, average of 300 days of sunshine, tons of skiing of course, mountain biking, rock climbing, dirt biking, and  world class fly fishing.  Major league baseball, football, hockey, and basket ball.  You'll be right there when the Huskers play CU.So much for the CSM and Colorado promotion, just get yourself started on the path towards an education in welding engineering, it will pay off.  You can start with a with an Associates Degree from a junior college and get many of the non-welding prerequisits out of the way before trasfering to a 4 year school.In welding engineering you will benefit from skills/knowlede in design/drafting, mechanical engineering, machining, machine automation/control, electronics, materials science/metallurgy, technical writing, physics, chemistry, and on, and on, and on.  It's supprising what all comes up in welding applications and welding problemsLast edited by pulser; 06-06-2009 at 12:12 AM.
Reply:Originally Posted by Nick Zdo you get more money if your a welding engineer? Also my teacher is telling my to Go to Penn State and they start welding of with Gas welding....ughi had to do that for a half a year in HS and a semester in college
Reply:When I started out, it was 5 years of study. Civil Engineering would be the starting point and later specialize. My BS EE is equal to a BS and masters. Tons and tons of math.
Reply:Originally Posted by wesdavidsonYou can learn everything with tig you could learn with gas - how to watch your puddle, how to watch your heat, control, penetration. Gas is good for some things. If you have spent multiple weeks welding with gas, go to a different school. This one is either unable or unwilling, or perhaps unequipped,  to teach at a pace that will allow you to learn what you need to know. I get maybe an hour to teach an engineering student how to tig weld steel, usually 15 minutes, same for aluminum. 5 minutes for mig with steel. I teach about 150 to 200 students per year. This doesn't include practice or troubleshooting time. I also have to cover mills, lathes, - the whole shop.     Yes I am opinionated. I have watched way too many engineers graduate who are dangerous. I can't save them all.  I have watched way too many teachers graduate without skills. I have trained A&P students who could kill 200 people by leaving a cotter pin out, We train them NOT to kill people. Welding is just as important! Quality matters. Sloppy teaching is outright fraud.     You can make a LOT more money over a career as an engineer. your career can easily last 40 to 50 productive usefull fullfilling years. If you know how to really weld and engineer, then you will be in high demand, and highly respected. A GOOD welder is a craftsman of the highest order, he will know more metalurgy than a mechanical engineer, and more about structures than many civil engineers. He will make welds that will preserve life, and he will save the n##s of a lot of engineers who should have been trained better. If you are also a registered professional engineer and can weld, than you can show the guys on the floor what they should be doing, and sign off designs and procedures. A good welding engineer not only welds, he designs the welded article, the boiler, the locomotive, the rocket. Yes, I have built rockets, and rebuilt helicopters, and airplanes. He will design the welding machines, he will design the filler metals, he will decide where and at what temperature the weld will be laid in. He work will go into space, and under water, and fly a million miles on an airliner, without a failure. He will evaluate accidents, and failures and design repairs.      The difference is, do you want to set the procedures, or have them set them for you?       What do you want to do? I have a 2 year degree, I have run a lab at a research university for the last 6 years, worked training engineers and airplane mechanics and teachers for 20, built rockets, shuttle payloads and space telescopes before that. I introduced CNC milling machines in a major star wars research lab, integrated the cad system with the shop proceedures. Parts of the James Webb space telescope are being made in a research autoclave that I designed and constructed, the JWT  will replace the Hubble. I built a lab where nickel aluminide coated graphite fibers were developed, and helped build a copy of the Wright Flyer that has flown over 400 times and was on the history channel. I have given hundreds  written tests to pilots and mechanics. And worked on dozens of other projects.  Students that I helped teach work on aircraft around the world, fight wars on every continent, work in the space program, build shuttle tanks, boosters and engines.  And weld in every industry. Now, with all that I wish I had finished the 4 year degree! I wish I had the masters and the doctorate! I am being retired because I do not have the paper credentials that I should have earned.       I wish I could get a hold of every high school kid and ask "what do you want to do?" and then tell them to get the degree and do it.       I will not speak ill of a teacher, but, I have also trained tech ed teachers for a few years. They do not get a lot of instruction in the core subject that they teach. This year the future tech ed teachers in a major university had 2 days, about 6 hrs in the weld lab. This is all that they will recieve. They used to be required to have 2 semesters.They barely figured out which end of the metal gets hot. ( They are better off however than a civil engineering PHD candidate which asked me "is arc welding a chemical process? is that where the sparks come from". No kidding, and he may design a bridge one day.) They will be certified as "High school shop teachers" If they are certified teachers they have taken LOTS of education classes, lots of general ed, and one or two low level classes in their subject. It is the fault of the education system. Not the teacher.  Usually they are constrained by budgets, and by what they were taught. If they are expert at their field it isn't their universities fault.        If you can find a good teacher , wring him dry and find another one. I have worked with fantastic teachers, and some that were dumber than dirt. There are good teachers out there, base your choice of school on the teachers first, curriculum second, equipment third.       Now find a school, go. finish. get a job. Enjoy       Lecture over.
Reply:Just as an FYI, the Ferris State program is now an ABET accredited program, though I'm unsure the extent to which their program has changed.