ORANGE, Texas — Power City and Orange leaders gathered for the ribbon cutting at Lamar State College Orange (LSCO) as it unveiled its new industrial systems unit.
The hands-on-training (HOT) unit three gives process technology students the experience they need before they enter the workforce.
"It's a miniature plant and it will actually run and operate every day," said Chevron Philips President and CEO Steven Prusak.
Dozens at LSCO welcomed the second HOT unit.
"There's instrumentation involved. It will train the next generation of workers for facilities here in the area," Prusak said.
The HOT 3 is like the taller sister of HOT 1, which was the first hands-on training unit introduced to the department.
The new unit has more capabilities than the older one, according to Process Technology Instructor Tony Bramblett.
"We can pump liquid back-and-forth. It's about the limitation of what this can do. It can heat it up some. The newer unit will actually do a lot more. We have a boiler on it. We have a water treatment system on it. We have several pieces of equipment that are a little bit more detailed than what we have here," Bramblett said.
Bramblett says both units, and the glass distillation unit are all controlled by the DCS control system, which is also operated by students.
"Even though we are running one system, we can still be doing exercises, tracing lines, drawing, and locating equipment on the units that are not running," he said.
For first-year student Baylon Compton, more space and more tech means more opportunities.
"This is a very nice piece of equipment. A lot of people are going to learn from this. It's going to help me out a lot," Compton said.
LSCO President Thomas Johnson couldn't contain his excitement to see yet another extraordinary addition to his campus.
"There's just so many wins because of a piece of equipment that actually teaches you what you need to know, with our great faculty," said Johnson.
Johnson tells 12News the new training unit will be ready to be used by the next fall semester. He says it's a 'bright Orange future' for the campus.