Ya know Sour..... For me its hard to tell....... I've been to a bunch of Fabtech/Expos..... And I always see stuff thats new to me... but is it really new?  I dunno

Lots and lots and lots of different vendors from China selling inverters.  But no demos... They only had colorful plastic boxes with all the guts removed I suppose to save weight.

ESAB was doing demos on a ShortCircuit Pulse spray hybrid GMAW power supply that looked pretty cool on thin aluminum... Don't know how a PQR would go with sidewall fusion issues and all.... But they let me play with it and the welds looked good.

ESAB was also doing demos with that 710X FCAW wire... Amazing

Avista had some really good looking samples made with all position stainless SMAW electrodes that had Al very interested... The profiles on out of position welds were better than anything Ive ever seen with SMAW and stainless.

I got to play with a phased array UT thingie and it was really cool....... but again I'm not a UT expert so I might have been easily impressed.

I also tried on some really comfortable welding hoods and I can't remember the brand now and it's driving me nuts.

Hey Sourdough,

I was there as Al and Lawrence were there, too.

And the most important I have seen there was - of course - these both gentlemen! :-)

But I have seen some other quite good things, besides that what Lar has stated already when we have visited the AVESTA people - unfortunately without the blessed Chuck Meadows. I had amongst others a good talk with a gentleman coming from Montreal Canada and who was the president of a rather small company named 123.certification.com, see also http://www.123certification.com. He has invented a simulation program or software respectively, making it possible to manually "weld" without really welding. It was truly impressive and the presentation looked quite good, but even no real arc was ignited.

I am honest, I have stated particularly this here since I am curious how the "true" welders in the forum will react on this and perhaps may estimate what the future of this or similar tools might be.

In my eyes this - although high grade sophisticated - can never substitute the real welding training on site or in the shop, but can rather support the training in a very specific way. For instance to represent the very first steps in welding...

What is your opinion?

By the way, I was once again impressed by the AWS people. I could honestly not withstand and have purchased another book once again (my wife meanwhile doesn't say nothing no more!). They had a monitor at the booth where they have presented a video which must have been shown on history channel (Modern Marvels) in the US a time back and wich was entitled "Welding - Binding Ancient Technology to Modern Life".

My colleagues an I were fascinated due to the content and you know what? The AWS persons who have recognized this, have donated each one of us an appropriate DVD of this movie!

I must say this was an absolute great action. As I always say, the AWS is somewhat quite special - even excellent!

Best regards,
Stephan

your kidding me.........."what happens in vegas, I'm telling everyone" - I'll be there!

Regarding Stephans post : I think it is absolutely excellent to have a "video game" type of learning program for beginners. I have always been around welding, so I learned hands on. I think the reason that there aren't more professional welders out there is because it is one profession that is totally aggravating to learn at first. No matter how much you study, it wont make you a better welder, (hands on).

I really believe that most people who try to weld and quit, they quit because they give up prematurely. If they stick with it, they will fall in love with the blue light like we have all fallen in love with it. With the technology we have, I really don't understand why there hasn't been more focus on simulated welding .............