Beginning with AWS Business The American Welding Society President Nancy Cole called to order the 94th annual business meeting on Nov. 18. Dawn Young, director of Association Sales for McCormick Place, greeted the gathering. “We are so appreciative of AWS and FABTECH,” she said. “Every other year you have a $62-million impact on the economy of Chicago.” President Cole went on to give a brief synopsis of the state of the Society during her tenure in 2013. Some of the accomplishments included translations of technical standards to expand the AWS reach around the world; the Women in Welding initiative that has encouraged women to get into the field of welding with career-promoting programs, videos, and scholarships; the expansion of online courses through American Welding Online; the AWS use of social media to reach the digitally connected audience; the opening of business opportunities around the world; and record revenues and membership. Throughout her travels both domestically and internationally, she was encouraged to see how many people believe in welding. She also saw much enthusiasm in schools for the profession. Dean Wilson (Fig. 1), the incoming 2014 president, offered the theme of his presidential year as “continuous improvement through innovation.” He noted how improvement can be subtle and one might not even know it is happening. As an example, he recounted how during World War I the United States had no reliable manufacturing process for airplane engines and production was zero. Through a series of experiments with welding and other processes, manufacturing was producing 20,000 engines by 1919. Wilson also related how his company, Wilson Industries, introduced the first see-through welding screen in 1968. Its introduction was the culmination of trial and error improvements and the utilization of technology from NASA of a lens coating that filtered out harmful radiation. He is looking forward to all the projects for AWS that are in the works for 2014. Some of those include stackable, transferable certification credentials; secure online transcripts and a national certification registry for all levels of welding professionals; producing a video library for welding; development of a master welder program; a certified welder passport; expanding American Welding Online; continued collaboration with Weld-Ed; and individual support through scholarships. “I am overwhelmed and excited about what is going to happen in 2014,” he said. Adams Lecture Dr. John DuPont (Fig. 2) delivered the 2013 Adams Lecture titled “Welding of Nickel Alloys in Energy Applications.” DuPont is a professor at Lehigh University, an AWS Fellow, has authored more than 140 technical papers, and is presently the R. D. Stout Distinguished Professor. “In less than 30 years there will be a 50% increase in demand for energy,” noted DuPont, “and 80% of that demand worldwide will be met by fossil fuels.” A way to increase the efficiency of coalburning operations is to improve the thermal efficiencies of materials used in the process. One way to do that is to use alloys that retain their properties in hightemperature environments. Nickel alloys, especially superalloys, are of great interest for these applications. DuPont has done extensive research in the welding of these alloys and observed precipitate free zones, which actually are detrimental soft zones in the weld. Creep voids that contribute to weld failure have been observed in these areas. Preheat and controlled weld temperature don’t seem to help, but postweld heat treatment that stays below 1100°C does. Further research has shown that the addition of gadolinium (Gd) to the Ni alloy within a certain range improves cracking resistance. It appears to promote backfilling of the crack. DuPont feels one of the biggest challenges with these alloys is long-term creep characteristics, and solutions are going to be found only through a cooperative effort among the user, producer, and researcher of the alloys. The full Adams Lecture will be published in the February issue of the Welding Journal. Plummer Lecture Dr. Rick Polanin, professor and program chair of the manufacturing engineering technology and welding technology programs at Illinois Central College, presented this year’s Plummer Memorial Education Lecture — Fig. 3. Polanin’s topic, “The Future of Welding Education,” focused on looking to the past for guidance and inspiration for the future; understanding what welding education is about; describing the development of effective welding courses; considering the role of technology both in equipment and teaching; why manufacturing is vitally important to the United States; and attempting to predict the future of welding education. “With welding, you can individualize instruction and achieve life-long learning,” Polanin said. Also included during his talk was the complexity of issues affecting American education — for which there are no easy WELDING JOURNAL 45 Fig. 1 — Dean Wilson, 2014 AWS president, talks of the exciting future of the Society. Fig. 2 — Professor DuPont details his research into welding high-alloy Ni steels. Fig. 3 — Dr. Rick Polanin gave the Plummer Memorial Education Lecture.
Welding Journal | January 2014
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