Page 30 - MetalForming January/February 2022

FABRICATION
Resistance- Welding Training
Helps the Best Get Better
Knapheide Manufacturing’s entire welding team recently completed the industry’s first Certified Resistance Welding Training (CWRT) seminar, with three attaining the CRWT credential so far. Here’s how the training has paid off for the truck-body and bed manufacturer.
BY EFRAM ABRAMS
Efram Adams is a senior sales executive at the American Welding Society, Miami, FL; www.aws.org.
“Success doesn’t happen by welding—to obtain the new Certified
accident, especially not for
173 years. Quality keeps our customers coming back.” So says Kody Belshaw, weld training specialist at truck-body manufacturer Knapheide
Manufacturing Co., Quincy, IL. Herman Heinrich Knapheide emi- grated from Germany, began working in New Orleans, LA, and eventually made his way upriver to Quincy where in 1948 he started a wagon-manufac- turing company. He hired skilled Ger- man wheelwrights and blacksmiths, gained a reputation for high quality and guaranteed his wagons with a warranty. That tradition continues six gener- ations later under the leadership of Harold W. (Bo) Knapheide IV and is embodied in the company pledge to never settle for second best. “Our rep- utation comes from the people we employ,” says Rocky Murry, welding assembly quality manager and 40-yr. Knapheide veteran. “We put a lot of effort into preparing our operators. That’s why I set a goal for our welding team—which oversees all aspects of
Resistance Welding Technician (CRWT) credential from the American Welding Society (AWS).”
As the first step toward achieving that goal, all 11 welding-team members participated in the industry’s first in- plant CRWT Exam Preparation & Train- ing seminar, conducted onsite in Quin- cy in August 2021. Subsequently, three team members completed and passed the CRWT exam, including Belshaw and senior welding specialist Lane Spar- row. Other team members are studying and plan to take the exam in 2022.
The CRWT credential, co-developed by AWS and the Resistance Welding Manufacturing Alliance (RWMA), a standing AWS committee, establishes a new standard for the qualification of resistance welding (RW ) personnel.
“CRWT credentialing sets us apart,” says Sparrow. “It shows that we under- stand the technical background. We are able to share knowledge to make our welding team successful, our oper- ators successful and the company suc- cessful. We verifiably have better
28 MetalForming/January-February 2022
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