ASET Technology Alberta Spring 2018 - 18

The Very Definition
of a Capstone Project
HOW TRANSCANADA IS WORKING WITH SAIT'S WELDING
ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY PROGRAM STUDENTS
GMAW-WFC. SMAW. GMAW-SC.

For most of us, this is gibberish. For Welding Engineering Technologists, these are critically important acronyms that represent which welding processes are used to
join sections of metal. For the record, GMAW-WFC stands
for Gas Metal Arc Welding-Waveform Controlled. SMAW is
short for Shielded Metal Arc Welding, also known as "Stick
Welding," and GMAW-SC means Gas Metal Arc WeldingShort Circuit. If, like us, you're no further ahead, fear not.
Josh Brewster, C.E.T., R.S.E., the Academic Chair of SAIT's
vaunted Welding Engineering Technology Program (WET),
was pleased to give us a quick primer as part of an introduction to the excellent partnership between his team and
TransCanada.
"Ideally, when you're welding, you want to control your
heat input as much as possible. The higher the heat input,
the more you affect the integrity of the metals you're fusing. Traditional fusion processes such as SMAW require
considerable arc-on time that typically increases heat input. GMAW-SC generally has a lower heat input but has a
reputation for poor fusion. Also, both processes require
manual control, and depend almost exclusively on the skill
of the welder." He stops to make sure we're still following-we are, but barely. "That's not a bad thing. We want
only highly-qualified welders working on critical products,
and Alberta's pressure welders are among the best in the
world. But there are newer, computer-assisted processes
that build on the operator's competence, while providing
a superior, more cost-effective product. The idea of this
project was to determine, one way or another, what process is most consistent, what process produces the best
test results, and what process is most cost-effective. We
were hoping one technology would deliver all three outcomes but we had to prove it."
We now had a better understanding of the processes
and why the project is important in general sense. But
why is TransCanada involved?
"That's easy to explain," says Terry Mueller, P.Tech. (Eng.),
P.L.(Eng.), I.W.T., TransCanada's Senior Welding Engineering

18 | SPRING 2018 | TECHNOLOGY ALBERTA

Technologist. "Two reasons. First, we support excellence
in technological education. Second, and maybe more important, is that quality welding is the lifeblood of pipeline
construction."
So that explains why such a research initiative matters
to a major North American energy infrastructure company. With that in mind, we'll go a step further and state it's
no surprise to us that the driving forces behind this Capstone agreement are ASET-certified technologists-the
professionals who typically recognize the value of the kind
of practical education provided by Alberta's colleges and
polytechnics. Most are program alumni, as is the case
with Josh and Terry, both of whom are SAIT WET grads.
In addition to volunteering to be TransCanada's capstone
project representative, Terry has been a long-serving
member of the program's advisory committee. (He also
sits on ASET's Joint Board of Examiners-Ed.)
Terry explains the rationale for his extensive involvement. "I'd like to retire in the next 10 years but I can't do
that in good conscience if there's no one competent on
deck to replace me. Also, as I said before, TransCanada
strongly supports technological education."
Josh nods agreement and jumps in. "It's industry
partnerships like this one that allow us to graduate such
high-calibre students. And this relationship is really special because the project in question could help modernise
Alberta's welding standards. We're lagging behind and it's
hurting productivity and impacting safety."
Now Terry jumps back in. "The reason I got my P.Tech.
is that I believe in what the letters stand for. I like the limited scope concept, because it says that the holder of the
certification is a subject matter expert in his or her area
of specialization. And we need more SMEs in the welding
and non-destructive testing worlds." He pauses, then continues. "The research completed by the students helps
TransCanada gain a deeper knowledge of the potential advantages of current and emerging advanced welding techniques when compared to more traditional approaches.
They proved definitively that a lower heat-input process

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of ASET Technology Alberta Spring 2018