December 2018 No. 73 Vol. 12
Business
HammerHead Trenchless University Graduates First Contractors’ Class
The first class of contractors graduated from HammerHead University, an advanced trenchless technique learning center at the Lake Mills, Wisc, headquarters of HammerHead Trenchless, a Charles Machine Works company.
The new two-story, 5,000-square-foot educational facilities provide trenchless-method contractors, plumbers, project engineers, and utility company and municipal crews both classroom and hands-on application training for every HammerHead product line. Courses are available for the pipe ramming, pipe bursting and pipe slitting methods; lateral and vertical cured-in-place pipe (CIPP) cleaning, preparation and rehabilitation; and pipe and culvert spot repair. Upon completion, participants earn manufacturer certification.
HammerHead University’s first graduates included six Apollo Home employees. Founded in 1910, the Cincinnati-based business sells, services and repairs home mechanicals (heating, cooling, ventilation, electrical, plumbing and sewer systems) for more than 800,000 customers in its Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana service area. Dustin White, the company’s excavation manager, received his initial HammerHead cured-in-place (CIPP) certification before the new facilities opened, and returned in September with five of his technicians for the University’s first three-day course on CIPP lining systems and point repair.
“The controlled environment really makes a difference,” said White, comparing the new facilities with his previous HammerHead training. “The mockup creates a better real-life experience. It takes away the anxiety of a ‘game-time’ situation. The pipe was embedded in gravel, but everything was above ground, giving our people who are new to CIPP better visual access to see exactly how it works.”
\This distraction-free learning environment is key to the HammerHead University approach. Focusing on the fundamentals, without site-based complications, better prepares students to anticipate how specific factors will affect an operation and helps them more quickly determine the root cause of any problem that arises.
“This is innovative education. It’s not just reading from a book,” said Jeff Urbanski, HammerHead training and technical services manager. “We simulate real-life applications, replicating situations that put participants inside a house or a manhole on a street. But taking away the soil, watery ground conditions and confined entries in their first experience with the method results in more consistently repeatable performance over a wide range of worksite conditions.”
The learning environment is also safer. “Mistakes in a controlled setting result in greater understanding, whereas on an actual job, mistakes can cause expensive downtime due to equipment or property damage,” he said.
For those who already have that grounded understanding, instructors can alter mockups to duplicate a specific site’s set of complications.
Another advantage of the HammerHead University setting is courses can be held year-round. “No matter what the weather is outside, 365 days a year, participants can be using Same Path technologies to install, replace or rehab pipe, from gas-line slitting to CIPP applications,” Urbanski added.
And instructors are application experts. “Our HammerHead University teaching staff consists of former plumbers, knowledgeable factory and industry equipment specialists, and experienced field technicians – all highly trusted advisors,” he said.
Average class sizes range between two and five people. The University demonstration area accommodates up to 18 participants in as many as eight separate application stations simultaneously. Larger class sizes are possible in the HammerHead University conference room.
A near-future feature will be an “e-learning platform” offering continuing education units in association with HammerHead courses. “Students will be able to go online and for a small fee, take a pass-fail course to receive certification that applies specifically to their state or a given municipality, if it’s governed by specific guidance,” he explained. “Certification will be annually renewable.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION
HammerHead Trenchless,
(920) 648-4848, hammerheadtrenchless.com
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