TPT January 2007

‘Where have all the welders gone?’ T he title of a Wall Street Journal article from last August causes a moment’s pause. But the content is less alarming. The thrust of the article is that, despite the thinning ranks of experienced welders, a global boom in industrial manufacturing has created a greater- than-ever demand for skilled welders. Where the next generation of welders is going, in great numbers, is to engineering schools and on-site training programs for instruction in an exceptionally challenging but very rewarding speciality. Demand like that is a great motivator, but will not do the whole job of attracting and holding artisan-workers in an industrial world full of competing specialities. What attracts the welders of tomorrow is the ongoing progress in techniques and equipment, the sheer range of calls on hand and brain. The functions on modern orbital TIG welding equipment alone include pulsed current, multilevel programming of that current, pulsed wire feed, electrode oscillation, and a host of others. Let those who love a challenge confront a substantial length of boiler tubing, subjected to extensive corrosion and creep damage in service, needing to be replaced prior to failure. P rogress in W elding T echnology, E quipment & C onsumables “Companies can’t find enough of them,” asserts the Wall Street Journal’s Ilan Brat.

Photo: Carl Cloos Schweisstechnik

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The US market has sent out

a cautionary note about a shortfall in welders (an estimated 200,000 by 2010)

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As noted by Mr Brat, welding is a job that is not

easy to automate. Repairs on ageing infrastructure, such as bridges, require judgment calls that are not within the capacity of robotics. Some complex welded products are not produced in sufficient quantity to justify development of expensive robots – and may never be. Welding will always occupy a position at the nexus of man and machine: in this case, some of the most advanced machinery in industrial usage. That is where the students streaming to intensive four-year courses in welding want to be. The US market has sent out a cautionary note about a shortfall in welders (an estimated 200,000 by 2010). The global skills challenge is this area should also be recognised. “It’s a great time to be a welder,” according to the WSJ. In the following pages, Tube & Pipe Technology reviews some companies whose products, equipment, and services ensure that it will always be a great time to be a welder.

Photo: S+C Märker GmbH

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J ANUARY /F EBRUARY 2007