AFE Tour of the Pipe Trades Training Center in San Jose, CA

www.bukaymedia.com Facilities operation and maintenance personnel are typically kinesthetic learners. They tend to learn best by doing and observing, rather than following complex written procedures. On July 27, 2011 the Association for Facilities Engineering (AFE) members and guests toured of the state-of-the-art, 100,000 square foot Loyd E. Williams Pipe Trades Training Center, where UA 393 apprentices and journeymen learn and hone their skills. You will be amazed at the vast array of hands-on training technologies, labs, and demonstrations used to train our local trades professionals. The tour included visits to:
• Rigging Area for training how to lift heavy objects such as air handlers, boilers, and chillers;
• Basic Electricity and Digital Control Lab for training on how to work on the vast array of energy management control systems;
• Pneumatics Lab for learning how to work with compressed air and how to integrate pneumatic control systems with the newer digital control systems;
• Backflow Prevention Lab for learning how to install, test, and repair backflow preventers;
• Test and Balance Lab for learning how to adjust and balance HCAC systems for optimum efficiency;
• Model Hospital Operating Room for learning about piping systems for medical gases and adjusting air flow in an operating room;
• Steam Lab that uses glass piping to facilitate learning by enabling students to observe the liquid/gas change of state; and a
• Water Hammer Demonstration using ultraviolet light and glass piping to illustrate how improperly sized piping can result in water hammer.
For more information on the Pipe Trades Training Center, visit www.pipetradestraining.org/ .
Presentation on the Use of Video
After the tour, Michael Bukay gave a presentation about how facilities personnel and vendors can harness the power of video to save time and money. You can view a synopsis of the presentation at bukaymedia.com/videos/AFE/Buka... .
Michael Bukay is an Industrial Video Producer and the New Media Chair of the Silicon Valley Chapter of the AFE. Examples of his work can be seen at bukaymedia.com/.