Powered By SGI Visualization Technology, Safe, Cost-Effective Environment Will Speed Welder Training

DALLAS, Texas, American Welding Show, Dallas Convention Center, Booth #1110 (April 27, 2005)—To attract and safely train new welders who will build and maintain the aircraft, ships, submarines, and practically every piece of heavy machinery used throughout the world, Silicon Graphics (NYSE: SGI) and VRSim today announced the launch of the Virtual Reality Welding Trainer. Powered by SGI technology, the Virtual Reality Welding Trainer maximizes training capabilities in a safe environment by allowing the instructor to comment and evaluate a student while the virtual weld is taking place. The entire class can observe the student's weld on a monitor and learn from the instructor's suggestions about the angle of the torch, the fluidity and steadiness of arm movement, eye-hand coordination, the position of the student's body, the way they are holding the torch and a variety of other physical attributes that can affect the weld.

In real-world welder training, only two or three people can fit in a welding booth where the use of flame-proof protective clothing, gloves, helmets and visors limit vision and mobility while the sheer noise of an actual weld drowns out any words a teacher might offer. With SGI and VRSim immersive technology, students learn how to weld metal to metal in a virtual environment that:

• improves safety—no gas emissions or sparks from the weld
• increases productivity and skill level—real-world training conditions in a controlled environment
• reduces costs—no real materials or dedicated ventilation system are required
• environmentally sound—eliminates scrap material disposal

"Skills transfer is significantly increased because the Virtual Reality Welding Trainer accurately simulates the fluid dynamics of the way the weld pool is generated," said Matthew Wallace, chief executive officer, VRSim. "An experienced welder will look at the way the weld pool is generated and how the colors swirl together.

This requires a phenomenally accurate computer model that needs a lot of processor speed and visual display capabilities to simulate the information to the level of what the human eye sees in real life. The Virtual Reality Welding Trainer can be tailored to teach different kinds of welds with different types of metals, and, as those kinds of complexities are added the calculations become more intricate. You need the power and graphics quality only SGI can provide."

The immersive Virtual Reality Welding Trainer will be offered by SGI® as a complete classroom solution, which includes the high-performance Silicon Graphics® Prism® visualization system, VRSim EndeaVR™ software, VR goggles, and classroom monitor, with all device integration, installation and training performed on-site by SGI Professional Services.

"The important value that the Virtual Reality Welding Trainer brings to training schools is increased throughput: they will have more students complete the course and become better welders," said Tom Wall, branch manager, manufacturing sales, SGI. "And any manufacturer that has to bear the cost of training welders, either directly or indirectly will see a significant ROI. You'll get better welders, faster, on a system that can present more accurate measurements, more accurate training diagnostics and can produce more proficient welders at the same time in a safe environment."

Over the last two years, the Virtual Reality Welding Trainer was developed for General Dynamics Electric Boat with funding provided by the U.S. Navy's Manufacturing Technology (ManTech) Program under contract to the Navy Joining Center of Excellence operated by Edison Welding Institute (EWI). Based in Columbus, Ohio, EWI is North America's largest engineering and technology organization dedicated to welding and materials joining. EWI's staff provides materials joining assistance, contract research, consulting services, and training to over 3,300 member company locations representing world-class leaders in aerospace, automotive, defense, energy, heavy manufacturing, medical, and the electronics industries (for more information visit www.ewi.org). The objective of this project was to prove the viability of virtual reality technology for welder training. The project delivered a system that allows a company to evaluate and test for both entry-level welders and to help provide retention and diagnostic criteria. An environment was created that provides accurate metrics to determine if students have the aptitude for welding, as not everyone has the same level of proficiency or the necessary eye-hand coordination to maintain the steady pace of a weld. Because the average age in the heavy-industry welding community is by some reports over 46 years, new, younger welders are needed. Once a welder has established an initial level of proficiency, the Virtual Reality Welding Trainer becomes a hands-on learning experience that augments visualization with muscle memory and kinetic awareness. As a result, welding trainees learn faster, without the tedium of instruction manuals and videos, and increase productivity sooner.

"The VRSim Virtual Reality Welding Trainer is a time- and cost-saving productivity tool that provides excellent gas metal arc welding simulation for new recruits and experienced welders," said Nancy Porter, Project Manager, Navy Joining Center at EWI. "We're pleased to support this project, which brings new innovation to the field of materials joining."

A complete bundle of the Virtual Reality Welding Trainer is available immediately and includes the Silicon Graphics Prism visualization system operating on the 64-bit open system Linux® environment with four Intel® Itanium® 2 processors, two ATI® graphics pipes, VRSim Welding Software suite, FCS Robotics HapticMASTER System, motion-tracking head-mount display (i.e.,goggles), and Instruction Console. The system is scalable to multiple training bays per Instructor Station. By leveraging common system infrastructure components the U.S. list price for a multiple booth configuration can reach below $99,000 per training station.

For more information contact SGI at (800) 800-7441 or a local SGI sales office.

VRSim
VRSim, Inc. is a rapidly growing technology company located in New Britain, CT. VRSim provides a platform independent software suite and integration capabilities that that provide easy to use immersive capabilities for digital design, maintenance and training for the heavy industry and government users. VRSim can be found on the web at www.VRSim.com.

SILICON GRAPHICS | The Source of Innovation and Discovery™
SGI, also known as Silicon Graphics, Inc. (NYSE: SGI), is a leader in high-performance computing, visualization and storage. SGI's vision is to provide technology that enables the most significant scientific and creative breakthroughs of the 21st century. Whether it's sharing images to aid in brain surgery, finding oil more efficiently, studying global climate, providing technologies for homeland security and defense, or enabling the transition from analog to digital broadcasting, SGI is dedicated to addressing the next class of challenges for scientific, engineering and creative users. With offices worldwide, the company is headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., and can be found on the Web at www.sgi.com.

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