Right now, one of the most famous welders has a superhero identity, but no cape and tights: Instead, he dons an armored metal suit he designed and built, with the aid of welding equipment from Lincoln Electric, a 113-year-old Ohio company headquartered in Cleveland.
His non-hero name is Tony Stark; you probably know him better as “Iron Man.”
Stark and his alter ego are fictional. But, as the hit of the summer box office, they may be a real boon of sorts for the welding industry – at least that’s the hope of the American Welding Society (AWS), which is taking advantage of the movie’s popularity to reach out to young people at whom it is targeted.
In cooperation with Marvel Enterprises, which co-produced “Iron Man,” AWS published a special comic book with a storyline featuring high school welding students helping Stark against the forces of evil. Earlier this year, AWS distributed 50,000 copies to high school-age kids, in conjunction with the movie’s theatrical release. Ross Hancock, AWS director of marketing and communications, said besides the art and storyline, it contains contact information for students to order an AWS career guide.
SHORTAGE OF LABOR
The shortage of welders in the United States is no entertaining matter. Hancock said according to figures from the U.S. Department of Labor, there were approximately 546,000 welders nationwide in 2006, down 15 percent from six years earlier. The latest figures show even further slippage to only 400,000.
“That’s gotten to be so extreme that the average age of a welder these days is 54 years old,” he said of fewer young people entering the field.
In just two years, it is estimated the industry will be roughly 200,000 welders short of the 2010 need, even including students now taking welding classes and pursuing related engineering degrees. For every two welders retiring – about 50,000 annually – Hancock said only one is entering the workforce, with much less knowledge than the retirees.
“You need maybe three of them for every two of the experienced ones,” he explained.
At 51, Carl Peters is an experienced welder. He began at the age of six under the tutelage of his father, an ironworker with a shop attached to their house. His four brothers learned the trade, too, and all five have made different careers in welding. For his part, Peters is director of technical training at Lincoln – he started with the company 29 years ago after graduating from Penn State with an industrial engineering degree (and paying for his education with welding work).
Peters started in sales in Iowa, handling ag equipment accounts. Eventually he moved to Ohio and started Lincoln’s Motorsports division. He now runs the company’s welding school, which covers a broad spectrum of responsibilities: military training, sales force training, seminars for casual welders (such as farmers), recertification courses, union training and industrial and safety work with – and sponsorship of – student organizations such as FFA and 4-H. In fact, one 4-H fundraiser had Lincoln donating the fees from a farm welding seminar.
GOOD PROSPECTS
Financially, Peters is likely doing well. Welding has the potential, he explained, to pay across a wide range, anywhere from a typical tradesman’s salary upwards of $400,000 for a specialization such as oil pipeline construction. That’s not always because it’s dangerous to the welder (though there are such jobs – such as diving welding and explosive welding, which involves using powdered explosives and charges to join large, flat sections of metal to create reinforced building materials).
“People can die if you do this thing wrong,” he said, justifying the salary levels, “so you’d better (have the know-how) do it right.”
Plus, he said there are programs and jobs in which an apprentice welder can earn college credits while working, giving him or her advancement potential, even into corporate management. “It’s a hell of a deal for a kid,” Peters said.
And, “it’s fun. It’s a sense of accomplishment,” he added. “People still have a need to build things. There’s a certain amount of intrigue with it,” what with needing to balance physics, math, science and metallurgy. “It’s just fascinating to join two pieces of metal and do it right … you never feel defeated, but it’s always a challenge.”
To the casual observer, welding looks simple – fire up a torch and melt some metal together. But there’s science and a little art involved: knowing the kind of metal and its properties, patiently maintaining just the right arc while wearing a helmet that essentially forces one to work in the dark and handling chemicals. The welding stick or wire is often coated with substances that dissolve into gases that solidify around the molten metal as the weld is being made, to prevent air pockets that would weaken the joint.
IMAGE PROBLEM
One might think something that pays so well and offers various pursuits might be a draw for young people. But welding’s declined as a career over the past few decades. Peters said in the early 1980s, some of the country’s need for welders dropped off, as power plants, major highways and other infrastructure were recently built and not in need of major maintenance.
He added high school guidance counselors, educators and administrators started pushing students toward four-year degrees rather than vocational education, and schools mothballed many industrial education programs and shops in favor of computer labs (which took up smaller space and were less dangerous). There just wasn’t much glamour to being a smoky, sweaty “tech rat” in vocational classes.
“They were the losers,” Peters said of vocational students’ education. “They got the old (class)room in the end of the building. Really, the skilled trades just fell out of favor.”
“It’s not outrageously expensive, compared to college,” Hancock said of welding school, adding there are scholarships and financial aid incentives. He said the AWS is trying to convince educators they will be doing some students a favor by helping them check into welding careers.
In the past several years, as those power plants and highways and other infrastructure have shown the inevitable breakdown of aging, the need for welders has been on the rise. Respect, however, is slow to follow – hence, one reason the AWS jumped on the opportunity to work with Marvel to promote through what has turned out to be an even more popular movie than anticipated.
Peters said welding has changed quite a bit in his lifetime. The process is still the same, but the tools have improved. Coils of wire have replaced sticks, giving the welder a continuous feed so they don’t have to stop and put in a new stick all the time. Welding machines are smaller and more portable – something he pointed out should be of interest to farmers and others who would like to learn to weld casually in order to do their own repairs and save money.
There are now remote, computer-monitored welding robots that require operators who are skilled with welding and programming. Peters described the marriage of the microchip and the welder as the “jazzy part” of the industry.
Another career opportunity is in sales. Lincoln salespeople are trained welders, whether educated elsewhere or by the company in Cleveland or at one of its overseas schools. Trainee Clint Keller, who graduated from Illinois State University with a four-year business degree, travels to shows such as the National Farm Machinery Show held in Louisville, Ky., earlier this year. Part of his eight-month training includes demonstrating his craft with Lincoln products at the company’s booths.
“Every salesman needs to know what his product does,” Keller said, explaining it helps them troubleshoot problems with current customers as well as make purchasing recommendations to new ones.
WELDING’S COMEBACK
Peters said one way welding is regaining respectability among young people is through motorcycle and car shows that depict it as part of the process of building a cool set of wheels, as well as NASCAR pit and shop footage showing welding. And it’s not just impressing the boys; Hancock said in 2006, 6 percent of American welders were women, up from 4.9 percent in 2000, and that figure is growing. One manufacturer he knows has 30 females out of 200 welders.
“We think that’s where the growth is going to come from,” Hancock said.
Peters, who recently gave some career advice to the 18-year-old winner of a statewide welding competition in Utah – a female – said he believes women make better welders because they have more dexterity and pay attention to detail.
“Women tend to listen to what they’re told; they pay attention,” he said of their capacity to learn. “So, we see more of them … but not nearly enough.”
He said another potential pool of labor is in twentysomethings who’ve either not yet found their calling, or who have earned degrees and can’t find jobs. He calls these the “rebounders” and said they’re more plentiful than recent high school graduates or older people seeking a new career.
As for the “Iron Man” connection, Lincoln Marketing Communications Director Dan Ziemnik said the company got lucky, since it wasn’t even looking for a tie-in. “What really happened was we have a hotline, and one of their people called and told us what they wanted,” he said.
What Marvel wanted was Lincoln’s red-colored portable welding equipment, since it tied in with Iron Man’s red suit. Ziemnik said Lincoln – a worldwide company with more than $2 billion in annual sales, which ships 50-60 percent of its Cleveland-manufactured goods overseas – happened to have a representative in California who helped set up the welding equipment on-set and taught those who had to use it. In addition, Ziemnik said he heard one of the filming crew liked using Lincoln equipment and may have suggested it.
So far, the movie has grossed more than $500 million worldwide, and there is already sequel news. Does this mean another starring role for Lincoln? Ziemnik doesn’t know.
“If you get into sponsorship opportunities like that with summer blockbusters … we’re really an industrial product, but there are consumers who buy us,” he said, but pointed out it’s not as easy as tying in an inexpensive product anybody can immediately use, such as soft drinks or shoes. “It’s very hard for us to play in that world.”
Still, it’s been good for the company. “It gives our sales reps something to talk about,” Ziemnik said.
-Published in Marketplace, August 2008