Geeking out about welding

Hey, you have to like a science fiction movie that mostly features welders.

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.

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.

Lincoln's "How I did it" - some good stuff, but more detail needed

If you grab a subscription to Lincoln's excellent iWeld newsletter, you got a link to the "how I did it" page of their website.

The page features welding projects from dozens of welders. The projects range from race car frames to hay bale handlers to bed frames to cactus shaped mailboxes. What would be really nice would be more project specifications to go along with the photographs. They have a nice start, but without the descriptions and project info, it's lacking.

New welding and fabrication techniques to be developed for space program

Interesting stuff on welding and the space program.

Lots worth reading, but the cashew for welders is here:

"New welding and fabrication techniques will play a crucial role in development of the aeroshell, a protective shell encasing spacecraft that provides an aerodynamic surface and protection from intense temperatures during atmospheric travel; propellant tanks; and the Orion capsule.

A bonding technique known as friction stir welding, first used on the shuttle external tank in 2005, produces high-strength, defect-free joint welds and can uniformly weld materials together -- a vital requirement of next-generation launch vehicles and hardware that must endure long-term space travel. Composite fabrication, another innovative technology pursued by researchers, involves advanced fiber placement to strengthen construction of large, complex structures."