The Lincoln Electric Co. is celebrating the opening of its brand-new Welding Technology and Training Center in Euclid, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. Classes began at the 130,000-sq-ft facility on January 8, but the company officially cut the ribbon on March 21 with a reception and tour for approximately 250 invited guests.
The new building represents a $30 million investment in training for a new generation of welding leaders, according to a company statement. The Welding Technology and Training Center is dedicated to training educators, skilled trades and industrial teams in the craft and science of welding.
With a specific mission to train-the-trainer to address the needs of the industries Lincoln Electric serves, the state-of-the-art facility doubles the companys welding education capacity. It features 13 welding school classrooms, six seminar rooms, a 100-seat auditorium, 166 welding and cutting booths and a virtual reality and training lab with 10 VRTEX welding simulators. In addition, the company is preparing to have the training center become an American Welding Society accredited testing facility.
Lincoln Electrics welding school was founded in 1917. The new facility was built to commemorate its 100th anniversary and represents the schools first major renovation since 1982. The two-story building sits on the companys campus located about 12 miles east of Cleveland.