High School Drafting Students Visit PT&P

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.

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.