Lincoln Electric, a manufacturer of advanced arc welding and assembly solutions, has added an innovative product to its education lineup to inspire young and future professionals. The Voyage Arc Virtual Reality Welding Headset is an interactive, immersive classroom platform that introduces students to welding fundamentals.
Lincoln Electric’s educational Voyage Arc Welding VR Headset,
is designed to introduce welding fundamentals and inspire a future career in the trades.
This new tool is designed to spark interest in careers involving welding by enabling tech-savvy students to learn in a virtual setting. In addition to the immersive experience, the Voyage Arc headset incorporates gaming elements to keep students motivated.
As a learner masters each lesson, they are rewarded with “Spark” points they can use to customize their helmets. As they don the Voyage Arc all-in-one headset, students leave the distractions of the classroom behind and are transported to a realistic, virtual setting where they are tasked with “welding” equipment.
“Lincoln Electric is committed to ensuring that as experienced welders retire, the next generation is ready and qualified to take their place,” said Denise Sirochman, product manager, Lincoln Electric. “The Voyage Arc headset enables us to reach up-and-coming generations of learners and get them excited about careers in welding by letting them experience it for themselves in a safe, fun, and engaging way.”
How it works
Each student takes a self-guided tour through an amusement park by following narration and interactive instructions, stopping along the way to take 10 individual lessons. With visual cues and repetitive knowledge checks, students are introduced to the common welding techniques of GMAW and SMAW and learn critical skills such as travel speed, position, and contact tip to work distance.
The student practices each technique and then uses their new skills to repair familiar rides.
The self-paced, micro-learning lessons are delivered in bite-sized bursts and enable students to easily save their progress and quickly pick up where they left off. The lessons can be individually selected and repeated as needed.
Topics covered include:
- Introduction to safety and elements of PPE
- Learning about common joints
- Introduction to GMAW
- Introduction to SMAW
The Voyage Arc VR Career Exploration Tool is classroom-ready and can be incorporated into existing lesson plans or used as the foundation for new curricula. The optional LAN system and software enables instructors, who do not need to be proficient in welding themselves, to monitor and view student scores, skills comprehension, and completed lessons, while tracking the entire class’s progress with a simple dashboard.
Filed Under: Welding • soldering