The Operating
Engineers Training Institute of Ontario (OETIO) has brought three of its
training simulators to CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2011. It is hoping to partner with
schools and organizations around the world to set up additional training sites
where prospective crane and heavy equipment operators can learn in the
classroom, simulator, lab and field how to operate construction machinery.
The institute has
trained more than 13,000 operators in Canada
and thousands more in the US
and Brazil,
providing 6,000 hours of simulation training for crane operation and 2,000
hours for heavy equipment per student. OETIO works with partner schools and
organizations in other countries to set up curriculum standards, hire trainers
and get the school up and running.
OETIO’s heavy
equipment simulator on display at CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2011 has been set up exactly
like the real cab in a John Deere or Caterpillar digger with realistic
dual-joystick controls. Conference goers can sit in the cab to get the feel of
the controls before digging a hole in a pit of gravel on the showroom floor.
Across the booth,
trainees can sit in a virtual-reality crane simulator, complete with a
head-movement sensor, where they have to hook a segment of concrete piping on
the end of a large crane and place it in a virtual ditch.
