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Training / Dreducation®

At DSC Dredge, we know that proper training works hand-in-hand with experience to help you operate your dredge safely, efficiently, and at peak production. Click this link for the most current trainings – DSC’s 3 Day Aggregate Training Short Course 2025 – February 18th-20th, 2025. Registration Details Coming Soon! Hotel Group Rate Here.

Dreducation® Class

At DSC, Dreducation describes our commitment to furthering education and training about dredges and dredging – not only for dredge owners and their crews, but also for the general advancement of the industry.

Each year, industry expert and DSC Director of Domestic Dredge Sales Charles Johnson conducts our annual one-day Dreducation® Class—a basic dredge operators’ training class designed to educate both industry professionals and newcomers on the basic fundamentals of hydraulic dredging to help them become more productive and work efficiently. This class is designed to be specific to all hydraulic dredges, and not manufacturer- or brand-specific. It explains the basic functions of each dredge type, production and maintenance goals and how to safely achieve these goals.

In developing this class, Mr. Johnson has drawn from the years he has spent gaining knowledge about every function of every piece of equipment onboard a dredge. The result is a world-class dredge operator training course that provides valuable insight and instruction for dredge professionals with all levels of experience.

After-class surveys show that our Dreducation® class is 100% recommended by participants.

Participants find this class to be educational in the operation of dredges and 85% felt it would help them increase productivity and efficiency in their operations!

DSC offers the Dreducation® Class once a year in New Orleans in the spring. Accommodations are at a first-class French Quarter Hotel, and DSC acquires a special room rate for the training. Morning coffee, snacks, and lunch are all  included.

Dredge Operator Training

DSC offers Dreducation® Operator Training to all new DSC dredge purchasers and to those companies that wish to train their personnel, no matter what brand of cutter suction dredge they own. The training classes are offered in various arrangements.

For the new dredge purchaser, the Dreducation® class can be offered at the DSC facility located in Reserve, LA as a 2-day training course. The new dredge purchaser is only responsible for lodging and transportation costs for their personnel. The preliminary agenda for this Dreducation® training includes a day-of, classroom-style training on the fundamentals of dredging and understanding dredging theories, and a second day that covers the various dredge systems, lever room controls and maintenance procedures of the new DSC dredge.

As an option, DSC also offers this Dreducation® training at the new dredge purchaser’s site. The new dredge purchaser is only responsible for the trainer’s travel expenses, billed at actual cost, for expenses such as airfare, lodging, car rental, and meals. The onsite Dreducation® training is conducted in conjunction with our Field Service startup and testing. The onsite classroom Dreducation® training begins the day following the dredge launching, testing and troubleshooting period, and is followed by on-the-job operator training, performed by our Field Service Technician, behind the controls of the new DSC dredge.

A one-day, in-house or onsite operator Dreducation® training class is also offered to any company wishing to train their personnel on a fee basis. The fees for this training are included in the table on this page.

Note: Each Dreducation® training class DSC conducts has a flexible agenda and format that may be tailored, depending on the scope and need of each customer. This ensures that the Dreducation® training class is tailored to fit the customer’s needs. Class participants are encouraged to ask questions throughout the training process to ensure that training needs of the individual are properly addressed.

Training Topics

The typical agenda of the Dreducation® classroom style training, includes topics regardingthe fundamentals of dredging and understanding dredging theories.

What is a “Centrifugal Pump?”

  • Centrifugal vs. positive displacement
    • Effects on horsepower requirements vs. friction in both
  • How centrifugal pump works
    • Front liner/impeller clearance and slurry re-circulation
    • Pre-rotation and wear
    • Proper pump impeller adjustment
    • Measuring impeller shaft endplay for preventive maintenance scheduling
    • Eye evacuation and atmospheric pressure
    • Cause and effects of pump cavitation
  • Parts of the centrifugal pump
    • Various materials used in parts and why
    • The use of 3-vane vs. 4-vane impellers
  • How to read a theoretical pump curve (TPC)
    • Head, pipeline length and terminal elevation
    • How to determine flow rate using the TPC
    • Converting flow rate into velocity
    • How to convert head to pressure
    • Determining horsepower requirement
    • Pump efficiency and how it affects horsepower requirement

Project Planning

  • Why project plans are important
  • Example of a typical project plan

Dredging Technologies

  • Range diagram examples
  • Building a face
  • Advancing the cut
  • Ladder grounding
  • What in-situ means
  • Sub-surface material characteristics (fluidized material)
  • Free-flowing material vs. consolidated material
  • The danger of a collapsing bank
  • Atmospheric (barometric) restrictions and why

Excavating System

  • Types of excavators and their advantages/disadvantages
  • How a basket cutter works
  • Why does a cutter have a variable speed control
  • Types of material and how they are classified (size)
  • Compressive strength measurements (blow counts)
  • Horsepower, torque and blade cutting forces
  • Particle size restriction (rotating suction screen)

Water & Slurry

  • Description of heterogeneous flow
  • Velocity vs. turbulence with respect to pipe size
  • Velocity requirements for various size material
  • Pipeline size, velocity, friction, and production
  • What is critical settling velocity?
  • Suction dilution valve principles

Booster Pumping

  • When is it necessary
  • Principles of booster pumping
  • Discharge head and pressures

Training Materials

  • TPC examples
  • Settling velocity chart
  • Glossary of terms
  • HDPE & steel pipe size chart
  • Dredge pump assembly drawing

Lever Room

  • Typical lever room gauge layout
  • Reading gauges and what they say to you
  • Gauge readings of a plugged discharge
  • Gauge readings of a plugged suction
  • Gauge readings of a ladder grounding condition
  • Gauge readings of maximum possible production rate
  • Various instruments (suction dilution valves, flow meters, mass measurement, etc.)
  • Touch-screen data

Each Dreducation® training class DSC conducts has a flexible agenda and format that may be tailored to meet the individual customer’s scope and needs. This ensures that the Dreducation® training is tailored to fit your needs. Dreducation® class participants are encouraged to ask questions throughout the training process to ensure that training needs of the individual are properly addressed.

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