Seven HYTORC hydraulic bolting kits purchased by the SSMRC have begun arriving at training centers across the UBC Southern District. Previously, training centers had to rent such kits from the United Brotherhood of Carpenters International Training Center and arrange classes according to equipment availability.

“Each area having one of these kits will allow us to continue our up-to-date training on our schedule,” says Ed Wright, training director of the Arkansas/Oklahoma Carpenter Apprenticeship Training & Trust Fund. Wright spearheaded the kit purchases.

Instructors and students are using the HYTORC kits at training centers in Nashville, Tennessee, Moss Point, Mississippi, Tampa, Florida, Russellville, Arkansas, Arlington, Texas, Houston, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Augusta, Georgia.

While hydraulic-bolting skills are important in all industries millwrights serve, they are critical to disassembly and reassembly of turbines in the nuclear and petrochemical fields. The two-day HYTORC course is one of three courses that are prerequisites for attending GE gas turbine training at the ITC in Las Vegas. That training is required for millwrights working at certain jobsites.