American cities hire Chinese firms to build bridges

Date 11-17-2011 18:41

Gentlemen,
On the AWS site's homepage, within the "View all industry's news" panel, it says that American cities are hiring Chinese firms to build bridges and roads. I assume they'll bring in Chinese craftsmen and skilled workers to work on those projects, for the simple reason that they (the workers) earn one fourth (or less) of what their American colleagues earn.
I think it's a good opportunity for you Americans to watch how the Chinese firms behave from a safety standpoint. Don't pay attention to their technical ability, good or bad as it may be, just watch the safety conditions of their work.
I wouldn't be surprised if they (the safety conditions) are horrible. I've never been in China nor have seen Chinese at work, but every month or so Brazilian newspapers say that there's been an accident in a Chinese coal mine and a bunch of workers got killed. Accidents were common in Welsh coal mines in the 19th century, but now we're in the 21st century and things have changed since then.

Giovanni S. Crisi
Sao Paulo - Brazil

By L51174

Date 11-17-2011 19:33

The whole thing is disgusting to me. The reason cited in the news video was a shortage of welders. I'm guessing they meant a shortage of cheap welders. Wonder if they'll ever get a visit from OSHA?

By welderbrent (*****)

Date 11-17-2011 22:42

Thanks for the heads up Professor.

By the way, do you know a Prof. Bracarense? Rather curious about a paper he read at FABTECH.

Have a Great Day, Brent

By G.S.Crisi (****)

Date 11-18-2011 20:13

No, I don't know him. Do you have his e-mail, address etc.? Or at least, can you discover of which University he's professor at?
Giovanni S. Crisi

By welderbrent (*****)

Date 11-19-2011 21:16

BTW, sorry here Prof. Not trying to totally side track your OP. Notice my post above, actually it is below the way this posted, to Metarinka. I gave his full name and school as well as the topic of his paper.

Have a Great Day, Brent

By Elbras

Date 01-14-2016 17:52 Edited 01-14-2016 20:16

...deleted duplicate post

--moderator

By Metarinka (****)

Date 11-19-2011 04:44

Brent did you attend the seminars at Fabtech? That was my primary goal and my coworkers and I had were in the seminars all 4 days.

I don't recall a Prof. bracarense, but I do recall three 3 individuals from the federal university of uberlandia and university of goias:
Marcus Machado, Carolina pimenta mota, and a 3rd who didn't present (or I never caught it).

They presented two seminars on practical technology. One was to wirelessly monitor welding processes. The other was using off the shelf (cheap) components to make a near IR weld vision system. Both were pretty interesting.

By welderbrent (*****)

Date 11-19-2011 21:04

Metarinka,

Hello. Yes, I was at FABTECH all four days.

Monday, I was in the presentation on the 'Education Annual Program' from 8-5. The first two on 'Using Practical Welding Metallurgy Object Lessons' by Larry Zirker and 'Common Errors in Applying ANSI/AWS A2.4 Welding Symbols' which actually was presented by David Hernandez were the most interesting of these to me personally. But I stayed all day taking notes and appreciating the presentation given to educators and career counsellors on the opportunities within welding careers. I wish other members of this forum, who have been really negative about welding as a career choice, could have been there. I wanted to bring this type of info back to AZ and especially to the high schools and colleges I am working with on their advisory committees.

Tuesday, I walked the show floor and sat in on the D14.3 and later D14 main committee meetings to see what happens in code committee meetings and if I wanted to get involved.

Wednesday, I was in the WPS seminar all day with Dr Scott Helzer. Pretty good but needed to go a lot further. I don't feel it lived up to it's advertising nor it's listed objectives in the 'Official Guide and Directory' for the show.

Thursday I went to the Professional Program presentation on 'Materials Weldability' in rm N139. The first one at 8:00am was read by Dr. Alexandre Queiroz Bracarense of Federal University of Minas Gerais. I read that one for some students who were not able to attend. It made some good points and conclusions about preheat and hydrogen in regards to cold cracking.

But, after Dr. Boian Alexandrov of Ohio State gave a presentation, also on Hydrogen Assisted Cracking in Dissimilar Metal Welds', Dr. Bracarense read a paper of his own research into 'Impermeable Low Hydrogen Covered Electrodes' and what they are trying to do in developing new electrodes that will not need to be kept in rod ovens. They start with lower hydrogen than our current 7018 and stay at those reduced rates even when left in atmosphere for 2-3 MONTHS.

Now, this would be quite a development indeed. And their procedures also required less energy to manufacture making them a very energy (read 'GREEN') saving product.

ANYWAY, I was just curious as to rather the good Prof. Crisi knew this guy or not.

So, to get to both of you in one post, hope you see this Professor. That is his full name and the school if I got my info correct.

Have a Great Day, Brent

By 99205

Date 11-20-2011 01:14 Edited 11-20-2011 04:25

By welderbrent (*****)

Date 11-20-2011 01:43

99205,

Would you mind starting another thread for this discussion under... say... 'Technical'?

I hate to see the Prof's thread hijacked any further. He and the Admins have been very patient with some of these side bars. Let's not push it.

Besides, you may also draw more attention from other posters that may also have critical information of value to your question.

Have a Great Day, Brent

By 99205

Date 11-20-2011 04:24

By Metarinka (****)

Date 11-23-2011 22:32

probably passed in the hallways, we divided to cover more of the presentations my coworker a blonde female would of been at the materials weldability seminar. I would also stick out being african american and all.

I mostly attended the technical seminars as opposed to the metallurgy focused seminars, there's very little public research on the alloys I use.