Miller giving away $17,000 worth of welding swag

Check out http://www.millerwelds.com/ultimate.

The grand prize winner also getsa special training session with a Miller expert conducted at the closest Miller Regional Training Center, with the travel costs included. To get in on this, you gotta go to your local welding distributor and get a promo code. Then you register that at the link above. The package includes, among other things:

• Trailblazer 302 welder/generator
• Suitcase X-TREME 12VS wire feeder
• Millermatic 252 all-in-one MIG welder
• Spectrum 375 X-TREME portable plasma cutter
• Dynasty 200 DX AC/DC TIG welder

Gives you an excuse to go to shopping, even if you' don't win the contest.

Spectra-Curtain transparent welding curtain allows outside light into a welding booth to help the welder’s vision

Looks like a nice, portable solution for quite a few welding applications.

The Spectra Orange See-Thru Curtain filters welding arc images and all far U.V. radiation and blue light, while transmitting outside light into the welding booth.

The company said the Spectra Curtain is designed for low to high amperages in electric arc welding, and can be used for MIG, TIG, arc, plasma and other high amperage welding arcs. It is designed for heavy duty workplaces.

Robotic welding helps compete in the global market

If you're a welder, the high-level view that stuff that reduces the number of welders drawing paychecks is needed to help the U.S. compete isn't exactly something you want to hear. After all, right now, with companies chasing mig welders with bonuses and incentives, it sure doesn't seem like it's time to spend money on automation.

But the reality might be that the more manufacturing we can automate, the more jobs there will be.

"In order to be competitive with Mexico and China and some of the other countries, some companies have started bringing in automation. It helps them both increase their production, as well as higher quality to help them compete," is what Tennesse Rand Vice President Don Peters says. And there is some truth. Most of what we see from Asia isn't because it's better. It's because labor is cheap. Automation cuts that advantage away. And while that might cut the number of welders in some areas, there are jobs that will always require a human hand--no matter how much they automate.