MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette Pennsylvania College of Technology Dr. Davie Jane Gilmour uses a plasma cutter to cut a metal ribbon during the Welding Expansion Dedication at the school's Lycoming Engine Metal Trades Center Thursday,

Sparks flew as Dr. Davie Jane Gilmour, president of the Pennsylvania College of Technology, cut through a metal ribbon with a plasma cutter, officially opening the college’s welding expansion project, which added 35,000 square feet to the current lab.

The addition more than doubled the facility to over 55,000 square feet resulting in what is believed to be the largest facility for welding instruction in higher education in the nation, according to information released by the college.

“We stand together in a state-of-the-art education laboratory. The only one in the United States, and possibly the world, with an electron beam welder,” Gilmour said Thursday at the dedication. The welding lab is located in the Lycoming Engines Metal Trades Center on the main campus.

Detailing all the new technology housed in the addition — plasma cutters, a full lab of automation and robotics, a room dedicated to specialized types of welding and a non-destructive testing classroom and laboratory for students — were some of the new additions to the program mentioned by Gilmour.

“This will all take us to the next level of curriculum offerings,” she said.

“We have 18,000 square feet of space dedicated to metal fabrication. We have a “pipe alley,” as it so affectionately is called, offering pipeline simulation and we have 124 individual lab booths for welders to do what they like to do most, which is weld,” she added.

Funded in part by a $2 million grant from the Economic Development Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce, the expansion will enable up to 60 more students to be enrolled annually in the welding program. The third largest program at Penn College, the welding program enrolls a total of more than 300 students.

In 2010, the college dedicated an expanded welding facility.

“It (the program) immediately grew into and out of a space,” said Dr. Michael Reed, vice president for academic affairs and provost, during the ceremony.

With the new expanded facility Reed said that the college will continue to offer a “curriculum with a reputation that spans the globe.”

The overall graduate job placement for those in the welding program is nearly 100 percent, according to Dr. Bradley Webb, dean of the School of Industrial Computing and Engineering Technologies, who also spoke at the dedication.