Management and
MIG Welding Robots".
How
many managers or engineers would walk past these guys and
recognize there
was a serious MIG weld process issue?

Visit
all the MIG and flux cored
programs at this site.
Positive manufacturing / welding changes rarely happen without "constructive criticism". Changes in an industry steeped in biased, monopolized sales hype, weld process myths and entrenched manual weld traditions which have little to do with robot MIG weld realism, will always benefit from a little criticism and a lot of weld reality.At the end of the day, manufacturing responsibility should always fall on the manufacturing managers and the engineers shoulders. This is the only web site in North America that provides this message and encourages managers and engineers to use the resources available at this site to implement robot weld best practices and process controls.

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A Root Cause:
Five
decades of global,
MIG weld education fiasco:
Weld Education or the Lack of Weld Education: American colleges and Universities may offer "weld degrees" however few weld education facilities place emphasis on teaching the potential weld engineers and technicians with the ability to establish effective Best Weld Practices / Weld Process Controls with the common weld processes such as MIG and flux cored.
TEXT BOOK PROCESSES: With many colleges and university weld programs, extensive time is often spent on classroom, "text book weld processes" such as Lasers or Electron-Beam, yet these two processes account for less than one hundredth of one percent of the welds produced daily.
If all weld students and engineers spent more practical and classroom time on the common weld processes such as MIG, Pulsed MIG, Flux Cored and Resistance Welding, the weld industry has the potential to generate hundreds of millions of dollars daily through improved manual and robot weld productivity and quality.
WELD EDUCATION TIME WARP: Many global, community colleges that provide weld programs are stuck in a 1960's time warp. Each year these colleges spend thousands of training hours on their students providing stick welding and oxy fuel welding or focussing on MIG and flux cored skills. As there is rarely any focus on weld process control education, the majority of students who graduate, typically end up as a MIG or flux cored welders that "play around" with the weld controls.
Note: MIG and flux cored account for approx. 90% of the welds produced each day, yet if the MIG and flux cored weld tests provided at this web site was given to the weld educators and professors, few would pass the tests.Unfortunately in my life time, the global weld process education is not likely to see dramatic improvement. As any one in a weld shop knows, you have to have the ability to address a root cause of a welding issue before you can fix it. As few universities or colleges hire engineering department heads, with the ability to recognize what the welding industry needs, it's not likely they will hire educators with the process qualifications necessary to resolve the welding industries needs.
MIG AND FLUX CORED PROCESS APATHY IS INTERNATIONAL IN SCOPE: MIG and flux cored weld process apathy is not a North American issue. Europeans Engineers may love getting advice from welding salesmen and playing around with useless electronic welding bells and whistles, but few of these engineers have implemented Best MIG / flux cored Weld Practices and few understand the MIG process fundamentals necessary for manual or automated Weld Process Controls. Lets not forget the Japanese, If these guys cannot stuff a weld power source with circuit boards they don't want to use it.
If you are a young university trained weld engineer rather than get upset about this situation and curse the messenger, do something about it. The global welding industry needs hands on engineers that are "Process Control Experts". If you are a weld engineer and youn cannot do the weld how much respect can you expect from welders. The weld industry needs:
a] Engineers that can "without playing around with MIG / flux cored weld controls" instantly produce cost effective, optimum, manual quality welds.
b] Engineers that can walk into a robot cell and instantly optimize that traditional MIG or pulsed MIG weld.
c] Engineers that can provide effective process control training programs, and have the ability to establish Best Weld Practices.
d] Engineers that know SAW MIG and FCAW settings without advice from a consumable manufacturer.
e] Engineers that know the correct weld techniques for all applications.
f] Engineers that always feel comfortable around the global bread and butter processes such as MIG, flux cored, SAW, SMAW, GTAW and Plasma processes.
Plant and corporate manufacturing management would do well to
remember what Harry Truman once might have said.