PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN WELDING SOCIETY TO ADVANCE THE SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND APPLICATION OF WELDINGAND ALLIED JOINING AND CUTTING PROCESSES WORLDWIDE, INCLUDING BRAZING, SOLDERING, AND THERMAL SPRAYING

December 2012

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3WELDING JOURNAL

CONTENTS24 Reducing the Ecological Impact of Arc Welding

Some practical advice is offered for ways to reduce energy consumption when weldingM. A. Purslow

28 Program Aids in Modeling Welding ThermodynamicsExamples are given how computational thermodynamics is used to help design welding alloys and improve process efficiencyP. Mason

32 Green: A Way of Life for Weld Tooling CompanyA shop that specializes in manufacturing weld fixtures has been recycling for so long, it has become second nature to its operationB. Kratz

38 Moving from Paper to PixelsThere is a way to save time and money with the use of weldingdocumentation softwareD. Craig

Welding Journal (ISSN 0043-2296) is publishedmonthly by the American Welding Society for$120.00 per year in the United States and posses-sions, $160 per year in foreign countries: $7.50per single issue for domestic AWS members and$10.00 per single issue for nonmembers and$14.00 single issue for international. AmericanWelding Society is located at 8669 Doral Blvd.,Doral, FL 33166; telephone (305) 443-9353. Peri-odicals postage paid in Miami, Fla., and additionalmailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send addresschanges to Welding Journal, 8669 Doral Blvd.,Suite 130, Doral, FL 33166. Canada Post: Publi-cations Mail Agreement #40612608 Canada Re-turns to be sent to Bleuchip International, P.O. Box25542,London, ON N6C 6B2

Readers of Welding Journal may make copies ofarticles for personal, archival, educational or research purposes, and which are not for sale orresale. Permission is granted to quote from arti-cles, provided customary acknowledgment of authors and sources is made. Starred (*) items excluded from copyright.

Departments

Editorial ............................4Washington Watchword ..........6Press Time News ..................8News of the Industry ............10Aluminum Q&A ..................14Brazing Q&A ......................16Product & Print Spotlight ......18Coming Events....................40Certification Schedule ..........44Society News ....................47Tech Topics ......................48Errata AWS D3.6M:2010 ......48Underwater Welding Code

Guide to AWS Services ........64Personnel ........................68The American WelderLearning Track ..................84Fact Sheet ......................88

Welding Journal Index ..........96Classifieds ......................108Advertiser Index ................110

319-s Development of an Oxyrutile Electrode for Wet WeldingAn experimental electrode developed for underwater welding showed improved weld metal propertiesV. R. Santos et al.

329-s Modeling of Human Welder Response to 3D Weld PoolSurface: Part II – Results and AnalysisAn initiative was made to develop a model that simulates a human welder’s response to a weld pool in an effort to improve intelligent robotic systemsW. J. Zhang and Y. M. Zhang

338-s Theoretical and Empirical Validation of a Mobile Robotic Welding PlatformA mobile robot welding system was investigated to expand the use of robots for nontraditional fabrication of large products such as shipsJ. Stacy and S. Canfield

346-s Double Stage Plasma Arc Pipe Welding ProcessA plasma arc system that utilized both the keyhole and conductionmodes was used to produce a desirable root weld in pipeX. R. Li et al.

Features

Welding Research Supplement

The American Welder

32

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December 2012 • Volume 91 • Number 12 AWS Web site www.aws.org

73 Selecting Fume Collectors for Welding ApplicationsThe seven most important things to take into considerationwhen searching for a cartridge fume-collection system are addressedG. Schreier

78 From the Lab to the Production Floor: Students Learn It AllFerris State University welding students are benefiting from a close working relationship with industry professionalsK. Packard et al.

December 2012_Layout 1 11/8/12 10:19 AM Page 3

EDITORIAL

My year as president of the American Welding Society (AWS) is rapidly windingdown, but I have seen enough positive changes in the past 12 months to keep me invig-orated for a long time. Those of you who attended the AWS business meeting lastmonth in Las Vegas heard me speak about recent successes with our AmericanWelding Online training programs, the move of AWS into a new World Headquarters,the Welding Merit Badge introduced by the Boy Scouts of America, and some of thework we are doing in developing new business around the world. But, perhaps themost important project AWS is involved in at the moment is the workforce develop-ment program presently being managed through the AWS Foundation.

I am sure you are familiar with the scenario by now: 1) an aging workforce of skilledprofessionals is declining by approximately 10% per year, primarily through retire-ment; 2) an insufficient number of young people are entering the field to replacethem; and 3) the country is facing a shortfall of qualified people in many welding fieldsthat could reach 238,000 by 2019.

AWS is working diligently to address what we call the “welder shortage,” and manyprograms have been put into place to inform students, parents, career counselors, andeven mid-career professionals of the numerous opportunities in the field of welding.This is being done by publishing career guides, exhibiting at various trade shows, seek-ing attention of print and broadcast media, and alerting public officials to the prob-lem. However, the biggest and most visible step in workforce development may be thelaunch of the AWS/Lincoln Electric Careers Trailer.

Let’s take a look at how this latter initiative developed. A couple of years ago, I wasshown a welder training tractor-trailer that former AWS District Director KenStockton had built. I was impressed, and I brought the idea of doing something simi-lar to the AWS Board — this time with computer-based virtual welding equipmentthat has special appeal to young people. The trailer was formally launched at the 2011FABTECH Show in Chicago. It has since taught many thousands more people aboutjob opportunities in welding as it has traveled across North America. This year, theWelding Careers Trailer visited Ohio’s “State of the State” event, FABTECH Canadain Toronto, the Boy Scouts Camporee in Ohio, the Indy 500 automobile race, theAirventure Air Show in Wisconsin, several state fairs, the IMTS show in Chicago,FABTECH 2012 in Las Vegas, and numerous other events.

And, this is just the beginning. We have a great deal of work to do in informing thepublic about the importance of welding in our lives, the varied employment opportuni-ties in this field, and how to get the training needed to start on this exciting career path-way. Judging by media attention to our efforts, and by fast-growing enrollment in weldertraining programs, we’ve got the public’s attention. We also have the attention of weld-ing and manufacturing organizations in other countries, which are facing similar kindsof difficulties filling positions in the skilled trades. We have seen enthusiastic responseto our workforce development efforts from welding and trades organizations in Europe,Asia, and Australia — after all, it’s a worldwide problem demanding cooperative solu-tions that serve to heighten the profile of welding technology everywhere.

It’s been a short year as AWS president, but we have been able to launch a career-building effort that will serve our industry, and ourcountry, long-term. I can think of few things moregratifying than to see this come to pass.

DECEMBER 20124

OfficersPresident William A. Rice Jr.

OKI Bering

Vice President Nancy C. ColeNCC Engineering

Vice President Dean R. WilsonWell-Dean Enterprises

Vice President David J. LandonVermeer Mfg. Co.

Treasurer Robert G. PaliJ. P. Nissen Co.

Executive Director Ray W. ShookAmerican Welding Society

DirectorsT. Anderson (At Large), ITW Global Welding Tech. Center

J. R. Bray (Dist. 18), Affiliated Machinery, Inc.

J. C. Bruskotter (Past President), Bruskotter Consulting Services

G. Fairbanks (Dist. 9), Fairbanks Inspection & Testing Services

T. A. Ferri (Dist. 1), Victor Technologies

D. A. Flood (Dist. 22), Tri Tool, Inc.

R. A. Harris (Dist. 10), Total Quality Testing

D. C. Howard (Dist. 7), Concurrent Technologies Corp.

J. Jones (Dist. 17), Victor Technologies

W. A. Komlos (Dist. 20), ArcTech, LLC

R. C. Lanier (Dist. 4), Pitt C.C.

T. J. Lienert (At Large), Los Alamos National Laboratory

J. Livesay (Dist. 8), Tennessee Technology Center

M. J. Lucas Jr. (At Large), Belcan Engineering

D. E. Lynnes (Dist. 15), Lynnes Welding Training

C. Matricardi (Dist. 5), Welding Solutions, Inc.

D. L. McQuaid (At Large), DL McQuaid & Associates

J. L. Mendoza (Past President), Lone Star Welding

S. P. Moran (At Large), Weir American Hydro

K. A. Phy (Dist. 6), KA Phy Services, Inc.

W. R. Polanin (Dist. 13), Illinois Central College

R. L. Richwine (Dist. 14), Ivy Tech State College

D. J. Roland (Dist. 12), Marinette Marine Corp.

N. Saminich (Dist. 21), Desert Rose H.S. and Career Center

N. S. Shannon (Dist. 19), Carlson Testing of Portland

T. A. Siewert (At Large), NIST (ret.)

H. W. Thompson (Dist. 2), Underwriters Laboratories, Inc.

R. P. Wilcox (Dist. 11), ACH Co.

M. R. Wiswesser (Dist. 3), Welder Training & Testing Institute

D. Wright (Dist. 16), Zephyr Products, Inc.

Founded in 1919 to Advance the Science,Technology and Application of Welding

Meeting the WeldingWorkforce Shortfall Head-on

William A. RiceAWS President

Editorial December 2012_Layout 1 11/9/12 1:21 PM Page 4

Take a moment to consider your cur-rent document control system. Doesit involve copious amounts of paper

and time? Or perhaps you have devel-oped home-brew documents within aword-processing or spreadsheet program.Given the power of the welding docu-mentation products available today, youwould be doing yourself and your com-pany a disservice by not taking a look at

the control and convenience they offeryou.

Electronic DocumentsWelding procedures, procedure qual-

ifications, and welder qualifications areall of vital importance to code-basedwelding shops and fabricators. Sure thesecan be designed with paper and pen, but

the sheer bulk of paper can make stor-age and organization burdensome andcan represent a potential liability. Creat-ing a new document with paper and penis innately time consuming when com-pared to software, especially when thatsoftware offers built-in document cre-ation assistance.

Once you have experienced documentcreation assistance, you will wonder why

DECEMBER 201238

Moving from Paper to Pixels

DAVID CRAIG (dcraig@thinkcei.com)is sales manager, CEI, Blue Springs, Mo.

How welding documentationsoftware can save you time,money, and headaches

BY DAVID CRAIG

Fig. 1 — Today’s software offersadvanced reporting features tohelp reduce your workload.

Craig Feature December 2012_Layout 1 11/8/12 8:02 AM Page 38

you stuck with paper so long. This assis-tance ranges from simply copying overdata from like fields between documenttypes to accessing built-in databases andoffering practical suggestions for fillermetals, gases, travel speeds, voltage, am-perage, and other variables, all the wayup to providing high-level guidance andqualified ranges based on code require-ments, thereby practically generating thedocuments for you, such as withProWrite™ software.

In addition to being time consuming,paper documents are also difficult tostore and organize. They are susceptibleto fire, flood, and even time. Many peo-ple are stunned when they find that theirphotocopied duplicates have faded al-most completely in only a decade, but thisis an all too common scenario. You canalleviate some concerns by keeping du-plicates off-site, but now you have dou-bled your storage space requirementsand made it difficult to process any doc-ument changes. When you instead cre-ate and store your documents electroni-cally, you can keep millions of documentsin a drive the size of a book, documentchanges are accomplished with a few but-ton clicks, and online storage gives youaccess to your documents from any In-ternet-enabled location.

Electronic documentation opens upnew possibilities. Where you would needto copy and either fax or mail a paperdocument, you can save an electronicdocument as a PDF and send it by e-mail,putting your documents in the recipient’shands in moments. Not only does thismake your life easier, it looks more pro-fessional to your customers when you canshow clean, accurate documentation foran upcoming or current job.

Welder ContinuityTracking production welds over time

can be an issue even with just a handfulof welders. Keeping an eye on processexpiration can be difficult; should any-one slip through the cracks, you have theadded expense of qualification tests thatcould have been avoided. Welding docu-mentation software makes managingyour welder continuity a very simpleprocess and may even take things a stepfurther by allowing you to track defectand NDE information on your produc-tion welds so you can stay on top of re-jection rates.

Data and ReportsTrying to correlate usable data from

a filing cabinet full of paper can be anightmare. Spreadsheets have their uses,but keeping data relevant and up to datecan be a huge undertaking. Finding a spe-cific Welding Procedure Specification(WPS) or Procedure QualificationRecord (PQR) among thousands of doc-uments is virtually impossible withoutdedicated software. Welder documenta-tion software provides the ability tosearch based on document-specific cri-teria. This drastically reduces your timespent looking for documents and canhelp eliminate duplication. Search out aqualified welder based on his or her suit-ability for a particular application or,even better, match up welders with newWPSs based on their previous qualifica-tion ranges under the guidance of coderules and eliminate unnecessary testing.

The reports available in today’s weld-ing documentation software range fromsimple listings of various documents cre-ated in the software, to welders and theircontinuity/expiration to massively com-

plex reports that blur the lines of tradi-tional functionality by adding the abilityto apply code rules on the fly as a filter-ing mechanism — Fig. 1. It is even pos-sible to create and use completely cus-tomized reports.

The added convenience of electronicdocumentation benefits your customersas well. Job data can be gathered into asingle PDF that can then be emailed oruploaded. Compare this to the time spentgathering, copying, faxing or mailing, andrefiling paper documents.

Make the ChangeThe latest generation of welding doc-

umentation software can lead you downthe path toward better organization,safer storage, and greatly improved us-ability and accessibility of your informa-tion. Add that to the time and money sav-ings it offers and the question becomesless “should you use software?” and more“why aren’t you already?”◆

39WELDING JOURNAL

For info go to www.aws.org/ad-index

Craig Feature December 2012_Layout 1 11/8/12 8:02 AM Page 39

awo.aws.org

Mathematics is a necessary part of a welding professional’s activities. However, math can be complicated and confusing for beginners, and difficult for adults who haven’t used math principles awhile. This course provides a combination of clear step-by-step verbal and visual explanations that

make each mathematical concept easy to understand and remember. Topics include place value, simplification, estimation, measurement, and the addition, subtraction, multiplication and division of whole numbers, fractions, decimals and mixed numbers. Practical exercises allow welders, welding

students, supervisors and inspectors to apply basic math skills to various aspects of the welding process. Eighteen PDHs are provided through this course toward AWS recertification.

Online Math for Welders Course

Sample seminar at awo.aws.org/seminars/math-for-welders-level-1

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