At LeTourneau University, LEDCO provided $350,000 in funding in 2023 to help with development of a robotics training center. In 2024, the robotics training equipment arrived, and the program will officially launch in 2025.

Through a one-week course, the Yaskawa Robotics Training Center at LeTourneau University provides training programs focused on industrial-use robots. The robotic welding training facility in Longview is only the second of its kind in the nation; the other is located in Ohio.

When initially considering the training center, LeTourneau University saw a very clear need for robotics training among local industries, said Dr. Alan Clipperton, vice president for the Office of Global Initiatives and Industry Engagement and executive director of R.G. Research and Development. Further, the university recognized the need wasn’t for a four-year degree program but rather “a short-term credential that allows current employees to progress that company forward,” Clipperton said.

“There has been a shortage of qualified employees for a lot of our manufacturing here in Longview. So, there are a lot of companies that have already started to move toward robotics and automation, and those that haven’t moved in that direction already are probably going to be moving in that direction in the next few years,” Clipperton said. “So there’s definitely a distinct need in Longview as well as the East Texas region for more robust robotics training.”

Though automation is becoming more widespread, there remains a need for a person to operate the machines and maintain them, Smith noted. So, the training is crucial.

Komatsu, for example, currently uses robots that are proprietary to Japan, Smith said.

“What that means is if they need somebody to program them, somebody has to come from Japan to program them,” Smith said. “So they’re looking at the possibility of retrofitting their current work flow with the Yaskawa machines, which will allow them to take advantage of the training at LeTourneau. They’ll be able to do their own programming and maintenance without having to get someone from Japan to provide technical assistance. So it’s leaps and bounds ahead of where they are now and it helps them maintain production.”

At LeTourneau, the one-week Yaskawa robotics course will teach both the operations and the maintenance of the machines.

The Yaskawa Robotics Training Center at the university has two labs – a training lab and a welding lab. The training lab currently features five robots that would commonly be used for materials handling. These types of robots typically have grippers and can be used to move an item from one location to another, such as in a shipping facility.

At LeTourneau, the robots don’t have grippers because the university chose to focus on robotics welding, Clipperton explained. Instead of grippers, the robots have pointers that can simulate potential welds.

“We elected to go with an arc welding training program. The arc welding is very specialized and is actually the greatest need,”
he said.

After learning the basics in the training lab, course attendees then progress to the welding robots in the welding lab. That lab features a collaborative robot (referred to as a “cobot”) and a more industrial-style robot. The cobot can be physically moved to certain points instead of having to be programmed to move, Clipperton explained.

“It’s really good for us to be able to do demonstrations for groups and students, but for industry, like in the manufacturing industry, it’s just not fast enough to do the work that we typically do,” he said.

But the industrial robot is. The industrial robot must be programmed, using a control box called a pendant, to move to make the required welds. Once it’s programmed, it can repeat that automation to allow for efficiency.

The week-long course starts by practicing in the training area and then progressing to the welding lab where participants will first learn basic movements with the cobot and then doing actual programming on the industrial robot. After the five-day course, they’re issued a Yaskawa certificate.

Once the five-day course launches in 2025, Clipperton expects to be booked six months in advance as LeTourneau draws training attendees from across the region, state and even the nation to Longview for the specialized training.

While the lab will primarily target those currently employed in existing industries for the week-long training program, Clipperton added that LeTourneau University students in certain programs also will have access to learn using the robots.

Silas Phillips, a university student from Vale, Oregon, said LeTourneau was one of only a handful of colleges in the nation to offer the welding engineering degree that he wanted to pursue. Robots like those used at the training center, he said, will help increase efficiency at major industries.

“One of the main areas that welding engineers go into is automation, like at Ford or any kind of automation company,” Phillips said. “Those companies may not specifically use Yaskawa, but the I/O (input/output) programming is very similar, so students can get similar programming, and they’re going to have that much more knowledge when they go out into the field.”

That sentiment, Clipperton said, is correct. While not all robotic welder manufacturers may use the exact type of pendant that Yaskawa does, students will still get a solid basis that can be applied on other types of robotic equipment.

“The logic and the concepts are the same. It’s just translating one language to the other,” he said. “I have previously talked with a group of HR managers about what we were doing, and they didn’t care whether it was Yaskawa or FANUC or ABB, they just cared about the logic of the program and how that works. Once you understand that, you can cross over.”