INTERNATIONAL UPDATE Lincoln Electric Opens Automation Facility in Brazil Lincoln Electric Co. recently opened its new Automation Center of Excellence in Brazil, a 5000-sq-m facility that includes demonstration, integration, training, and office space. The newly built facility, located in the city of Indaiatuba, features a training lab with six robot systems, a station for orbital welding process development and system instruction, and eight additional demonstration systems for robotic and mechanized applications. Two classrooms can accommodate up to 40 students. Lincoln held a grand opening event, where a welcome was extended by Indaiatuba Mayor Reinaldo Nogueira, who stressed the importance of creating an environment for business to grow and in which their employees could feel comfortable making their home. George Blankenship, president of Lincoln Electric’s North American operations, delivered the keynote presentation. He said, “Our responsibility to our customer must be more than just a provider of product. Their expectations of us are greater today because they have escalated demands from their customer. When we can improve their welding and fabrication procees, we become a partner rather than a vendor.” Leonardo Sabedot, business manager for the ASG-Brazil group, closed out the presentation. “We are excited by the opportunity that this facility represents, and look forward to forging strong partnerships with the many customers in the region,” he said. Lincoln Electric has grown its automation offerings over the last few years to include preengineered robotic systems, CNC plasma cutting equipment, fixturing and tooling, engineered line builds, robotic integration, laser systems, weld fume control, and fire prevention. Stork Technical Invests in New Daughter Craft Stork Technical Services, a global provider of management services for the oil and gas, chemical, and power sectors, recently announced an investment of more than $3.2 million in its new daughter craft, The Edradour. The craft, which will provide additional operational support to meet the expanding needs of Stork’s diving operations, has additional lifting capability for four-point lifting, providing vessel crane launch and recovery capabilities, and increased generator capacity. The Edradour complements the company’s existing fleet, which includes daughter craft, The Aberlour, a mother vessel, The SIEM Stork, and three dive intervention craft. The vessel has the same design specification as The Aberlour, which will allow both to be interchangeable with the existing twin davit system. “We are very pleased to welcome The Edradour to our fleet. The shared design specification allows compatibility with our existing launch and recovery system and will bring familiarization to all our crews, resulting in a greater safety recovery and efficiency in our diving operations,” said Roddy James, senior vice president of Stork Technical Subsea. Kemppi and ABB Announce Robotic Welding Systems Collaboration Through an agreement between the two companies, Kemppi Oy welding equipment will be paired with ABB robots such as in this FlexArc® robotic welding cell. Kemppi Oy, a manufacturer of industrial arc welding equipment, and ABB Robotics, a supplier of industrial robots and modular manufacturing systems, have established a collaboration to develop fully equipped robotic welding packages. ABB indicated the “technologically innovative” welding packages would be designed as modular, cost-effective projects for companies to easily install or upgrade into a robotic system. The joint business covers Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America. Kemppi equipment will be featured at all certified ABB Robotics welding lab locations, where customers will be able to conduct robotic welding trials on the latest equipment. Pema to Supply Two Robotic Profile Processing Lines Pemamek, a manufacturer of automated welding and production systems, has received another contract to supplement The Edradour, which represents a more than $3.2 million investment, will provide additional operational support of Stork’s diving operations. — continued on page 100 8 JANUARY 2014
Welding Journal | January 2014
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