Panasonic Opens Showroom in Vietnam Panasonic Corp. recently opened its Panasonic Solution & Innovation Center Vietnam in Hanoi. It was established as the company’s Factory Automation showroom in Southeast Asia aimed at showcasing highly efficient manufacturing technologies and equipment, including its latest robotic welding equipment. Customers can bring their own materials and electronic components for welding and manufacturing printed circuit boards for trial production. The center is also equipped with a seminar hall and conference room. Beside welding machines and chip mounters, it has peripheral equipment such as component towers and inspection machines from company partners. Previously, Panasonic has opened factory automation centers in Chicago, Ill., Jakarta, Indonesia, Bangkok, Thailand, and Munich, Germany. Whittaker Develops Welding Procedure that Helps Eliminate Dry Docking Whittaker Engineering Ltd., Stonehaven, Scotland, recently developed a weld procedure that uses high-powered induction heating coils to maintain the welding preheat temperature while welding water-backed plate. This helps mitigate the heat loss through the hull into the cold North Sea. The procedure helps companies avoid dry docking and loss of production. According to the company, the resultant weld is ductile, low in hardness, has excellent impact properties, and has a heat-affected zone free of martensite. Whittaker has used this method on semisubmersibles and a Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) installation. It believes it is the only company offering this procedure with full Lloyd’s Register classification approval. Seawater on the outside of a hull structure greatly increases the rate at which the weld metal cools. Fast cooling rates can produce hard martensitic structures in carbon steels that, in turn, can lead to cracking. With a sufficiently powerful induction heater, Whittaker reports it can achieve a constant preheat of 75° to 100°C with seawater at the typical North Sea temperature of 5°C. Northern Lights College to Build $24.9 Million Trades Training Center A state-of-the-art training center to be built at Northern Lights College (NLC) in British Columbia, Canada, will house the school’s trades training programs, including welding, carpentry, and wind turbine maintenance. The center will be built at the school’s main campus in Dawson Creek and replace World War II-era buildings donated to the school when they were decommissioned by the Canadian military. The government of Canada and the province of British Columbia are each providing about $11 million with the rest of the construction money coming from the college and private partners. The building should be completed in early 2018. According to the college, “The project will support indigenous learners as they prepare for careers in the skilled trades. It will also increase apprenticeship enrollment, address barriers that prevent student success, and improve completion rates for indigenous learners.” The project is expected to create 133 direct and 102 indirect jobs during development. In other news, the British Columbia government has announced it will provide about $1.4 million to the college to fund 639 spots for students in various trades including welders, carpenters, electricians, heavy mechanical trades, and aircraft maintenance engineers. Lockheed Martin and CoGen to Build EnergyfromWaste Plant in Wales Lockheed Martin and CoGen Ltd. plan to develop energyfrom waste projects in the United Kingdom with the first facility being built in Cardiff, Wales. The Cardiff plant will convert waste into up to 15 MW of energy, enough to power about 15,000 homes and businesses in the area. It will process about 150,000 tons of waste into energy per year, significantly reducing the need for landfill use. Construction is expected to begin in 2018, with operations to begin in 2020. CoGen will serve as the owner and developer of the Cardiff project. Lockheed Martin will lead the engineering, procurement, manufacturing, and construction of the plant. INTERNATIONAL UPDATE 12 WELDING JOURNAL / NOVEMBER 2016 WJ Dignitaries are shown at the ribbon cutting ceremony for Panasonic’s new showroom in the Thang Long industrial zone in Hanoi on October 7. An artist’s rendering of the new trades training center being built at the school’s main Dawson Creek campus is shown by (from left) Catie Underhill, TransCanada community relations officer; Mark Heartt, NLC dean of Trades and Apprenticeships; John Kurjata, NLC board chair; Mike Bernier, member of Legislative Assembly, Peace River South; Bryn Kulmatycki, NLC president and CEO; Brian Lieverse, Encana senior community relations advisor; and Collen Seward, NLC welding student alumna.
Welding Journal | November 2016
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