Thirty-six students in the drafting program at the Houston Independent School District’s Barbara Jordan High School for Careers spent a Friday morning in November 1997 learning how technical drawings are used during the fabrication of pipe supports, pressure vessels, expansion joints and other items produced at PT&P.
After an introductory review of PT&P’s business and a one-hour lecture covering specific projects requiring drawings (made more palatable by cookies) the students took a tour of PT&P’s plant. Students saw shears, saws and burning machines cutting metal pieces to be welded. In another area, they saw how a metal sheet is seam welded and then formed into bellows elements for expansion joints. They also saw how polyurethane components are produced for cryogenic pipe supports.
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The tour was arranged by Wilford Stewart, who teaches drafting at BJHS. The first course in the program is a traditional technical drawing board course, followed by courses on computer-aided drafting using AutoCAD. Students must take Algebra and Geometry concurrently with their drafting. Jesse Porter, Sr. Graphics Manager at PT&P, conducted the tour (see photo).
PT&P looks forward to having young people from the school district learn about how they can put what they learn to good use in industry. By supporting the public schools, PT&P hopes to show it cares about the future of education.