The Fabtech International and AWS Welding Show is one of the largest trade shows in the welding, metal fabrication, and metal forming industries.  Held on November 15-18 in McCormick Place , North America’s premiere convention facility, the show will feature previews of cutting edge technology from 1,000 exhibiting companies, exciting new business opportunities, equipment showcases, educational programs and networking opportunities. Two free keynote presentations and expert-led sessions, covering a diverse range of hot topics, are also included.

Don’t miss it! Register online.

The desperate need for new additions to the welding workforce resonates throughout our posts. It’s refreshing and inspiring to see someone, especially so young, making a difference. Seventeen year old Brennan Palmiter, a  race car driver and FMA‘s young spokesperson, toured seven Minneapolis technical schools, motivating his peers to pursue careers in metal fabrication. I hope to see more young people stepping up to do this in the future.

Teen race car driver promotes manufacturing careers

17-year-old Brennan Palmiter motivates youth to follow their passion
By Traci Tapani, Contributing Writer

Need help motivating young people in your area to train for manufacturing careers? Want to get them fired up about pursuing their passions? Seven Minneapolis technical schools turned to race car driver Brennan Palmiter to help them accomplish these missions. They are glad they did.

When Brennan Palmiter started racing go-carts at age seven, no one knew it was the beginning of an obsession. When he moved up to stock cars at 13, he discovered his obsession was expensive: fender-benders meant repairs. So he learned welding.

That skill won him the attention and eventual sponsorship of the Fabricators & Manufacturers Association, Intl. (FMA), and its award-winning magazine Practical Welding Today®.

CONTINUE READING ONLINE ->

The AWS recnetly hosted a D1.5 Bridge Welding Code contest at Ohio’s Zane State College.  The participants tested their skills by welding one overhead and one vertical plate weld each, and then, the winners were announced…

Man of steel

Colt Sammons takes first place in American Welding Society contest

STAFF REPORTS • MAY 15, 2009

COSHOCTON – Colt Sammons, a senior from River View High School and a member of the Metal Fabrication program at the Coshocton County Career Center, brought home a first-place finish in the American Welding Society D1.5 Bridge Welding Code contest, sponsored by Mid-East Career and Technology Center’s Welding Advisory Committee.

The competition took place May 7 at Zane State College’s Cambridge Campus. Fourteen contestants, representing seven career-tech schools in east and southeast Ohio, competed in the industry-based credentialing event.

The contest included both a prerequisite written exam and a hands-on challenge, which consisted of two plate welds – one vertical and one overhead.

The plate entries were inspected by a Certified Welding Inspector, according to the AWS D1.5 Bridge Code. Each contestant was then ranked, based on a combined numeric score of each weld plate and the contestant’s safety practices exhibited during the competition.

CONTINUE READING ONLINE ->

People throughout the country are looking for jobs and new avenues of career exploration. Many professions, such as commercial arts, are becoming highly competitive, with a shortage of jobs and a multitude of applicants. But there is hope. With the down-turning economy, projections of AWS surveys, and rapid retirement of US welders, it’s clear that there is a definite need for new welders for both the present and future. San Diego’s Continuing Education, a vocational school in the San Diego Community College District is offering an exciting new welding program as well as a newly updated welding facility.

The local San Diego chapter of the American Welding Society met on May 19th, in downtown San Diego, to support local welding students and share information about the school’s new program. The meeting featured networking opportunities, a dinner, a tour of the facility and a presentation by Dr. Brian Ellison, Vice President of Instruction and Student Services of San Diego’s Continuing Education. Dr. Ellison shared the school’s vision for the future of welding vocational education and details about their newly updated welding facility.
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Joe Welder isn’t the only thing that’s been going global lately.  NEMA has just published the EW 4-2009, providing the standard for graphic symbols used in welding and cutting in the U.S.  The only difference: now it includes all of the symbols recognized internationally by the IEC TC 26 so that everyone can be, quite literally, on the same page.

NEMA Publishes Standard for Graphic Symbols for Arc Welding, Cutting Apparatus

• Mar 11, 2009

The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) has published EW 4-2009, the first new edition in 15 years. This standard provides manufacturers and users of arc welding and cutting equipment with a system for the development and use of graphic symbols for use on their equipment. It accommodates non-English speaking and functionally illiterate workers in the United States.

In addition, globalization of the welding and cutting industry also has expanded, making it necessary for U.S.-based manufacturers to design and mark their products in a way that is more easily understood by a more linguistically and culturally diverse customer base. As a result, the new edition of EW 4 contains all pertinent graphic symbols recognized by IEC TC 26, the international standards committee for electric welding and allied processes.

CONTINUE READING ONLINE ->

You can go to NEMA’s website to download or purchase your own copy of the EW 4-2009.

Get excited.  Coming March 30-April 2, 2009 WESTEC 2009, the annual metalworking & manufacturing exposition and conference, comes to LA.  With more than 600 exhibitors setting up in the Los Angeles Convention Center, not counting all of you who will be in attendance, this should be an event to remember.  For more information, check out the event’s homepage HERE ->

These are the kinds of initiatives we need to take if we are going to fill that projected welder shortage!

Learning incentives: Grants for student manufacturing, engineering camp
Manufacturing and engineering summer camps get a boost with two foundation grants
– Control Engineering, 11/4/2008
Rockford, IL –

Grants of $2,500 to $5,000 are available to not-for-profit organizations and educational institutions to offer overnight or day-camp experiences next summer to introduce young people to careers in manufacturing and engineering.

They are a collaborative effort between Fabricators & Manufacturers Association Foundation (FMAF) and Nuts, Bolts and Thingamajigs Foundation (NBTF), founded by actor John Ratzenberger, best known as Cliff on NBC’s “Cheers,” and a champion of U.S. manufacturing. The charitable organization is dedicated to introducing young people to the joys of tinkering, inspiring the next generation of skilled manual artists, engineers, and inventors. FMA Foundation, an educational, research, and charitable organization, promotes metal forming and fabricating technology in manufacturing…CONTINUE READING ONLINE –>

Do you know of any grants or scholarships, or company initiatives available to young people learning the trades?

The FABTECH International & AWS Welding Show is North America’s largest metal forming, fabricating, and welding exposition and conference. The event exists to bring buyers and sellers of metal forming and fabricating technologies together in an environment that facilitates and accelerates business relationships.

The 2008 show will be held October 6 – 8, 2008 at Las Vegas Convention Center– in Las Vegas, Nevada.

One don’t miss event, keynote speaker and Joe Welder’s favorite fabricator / innovator, Dean Kamen. “Inspiring Future Generations to Lead the World in Innovation” on Tuesday October 7.

As an inventor and entrepreneur, Dean Kamen believes in the power of innovation. Innovation is the key to keeping U.S. manufacturing competitive in a global economy, but it depends on a well-educated and skilled workforce. During this high-impact presentation, Dean Kamen will discuss the importance of getting our Nation’s youth excited about careers in science, technology and engineering and cultivating an environment that encourages creativity and risk-taking. Drawing on his own extraordinary experiences and successes, he’ll provide insights on what business leaders and society can do today to increase our capacity to innovate and ensure a strong manufacturing future for years to come.

In case you don’t know who Dean Kamen is… he is the inventor of the Segway…. and with gas prices as high as they are now, the Segway is looking like a really good alternative to a car!

For a complete list of the events at the FABTECH / AWS Welding Show, check out the association website.

Joe Welder, aka Jim Watson will be at The Show. If you’d like to join him, and need a ticket, let us know. We’ll hook you up!

I entered the 2007 Professional Welders Competition!

The contest took place during the AWS/FabTech welding show in Chicago this November, and was geared towards certified welders – seriously, check out the spec’d out procedure and you’ll see what I mean.

With some good prizes ($5,000 for first, $2500 second, and $500 for third) I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. Besides, I had a good time talking with the facilitators, the AWS Indiana Section put together a fantastic operation with everything needed to laydown some metal! I would like to comment on their choice of stick electrode holders – they were the basic “open jaw” type. Take it from me, if you do any Stick (SMAW) welding you need to step up to the Bernard ShortStub electrode holder. It is much more comfortable to hold, and the mechanical gripping power of the screw type rod holder allows you to have much better control of the weld puddle and even lets you bend the rod to better adapt to different angles etc.

As I said they gave you everything except time–You got 5 minutes and they weren’t kidding. As soon as I completed my last pass, they stepped into the booth and said time is up — stop now and they took my test coupon! It was a great experience and although I hadn’t done any Stick welding (SMAW) for many years I managed to laydown some good looking beads within the called out bead profiles etc.

It was good time and brought back memories of my early welding school classes at Pasadena City College. Best of all I got a cool 2007 Professional Welders Competition T-shirt! Thanks Guys. . .

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EDITOR’S NOTE: The AWS announced the top 12 competitors, out of 188 professional welders from all parts of the United States, and Canada! Read the official announcement, American Welding Society Announces 2007 Professional Welders Competition Award Winners (.pdf)

At the AWS/FabTech show I had the opportunity to attend the Executive Forum Breakfast, featuring Michael P. Collins, author of Saving American Manufacturing.

Collins discussed “The Chinese Threat” reminding us that they are not invincible… Remember in the 1980’s we were all learning Japanese, and training on Kaizen and other Japanese manufacturing principals? Then the Japanese manufacturers had trouble, and the U.S. once again became a world market leader.

In his presentation and his book, Collins cites good U.S. manufacturing innovators. However he warned of the upcoming labor shortage — that is happening now and the coming shortage when the majority of the Baby Boom generation retires. Good manufacturing jobs need to be filled from shop floor welders and fabricators to managers, and engineers. Sound familiar?

He suggested that U.S. manufacturers need to change their focus and look outward. We have been focusing on internal process improvement, lowering costs as a way to improve profitability. The successful companies he outlined have shifted to a marketing approach. They market to everyone – and have opened up non-traditional channels around the globe.

What Collins didn’t mention was that recent studies show that Baby Boomers are staying healthier, and staying in the game, retiring later than workers in previous generations. According to an AARP survey, about 79 percent of baby boomers don’t plan to stop working at age 65.

Maybe the impending labor shortage is not as bad as many predict. And maybe recruitment needs to be part of you marketing plan.

Everything you do should be focused on looking for new customers and looking for new workers with better skill sets. That’s my thoughts what are yours?