Ed
has 40 years experience with the MIG process controls and has provided weld process
improvement and process control training to over a thousand manufactures in ten
different countries.
Ed
wrote the weld and cutting sections in the Machinery Handbook
> 24 Editions.
He rewrote the Thermal Cutting
Section" on laser-plasma-oxy fuel cutting in the ASM Handbook Ninth Edition
1988. He has had over 30 articles published on
weld process controls and has written three books on the subject. Ed was on the
AWS Committee that developed the MIG weld gas specifications.
This discussion group is intended for legitimate weld related questions and content.
This is not a location for welding industry sales persons to tout
their weld products, generate sales leads or provide weld product biased advice,
after all you will be able to get that in the USA welding magazines or at the
AWS site.
Please keep your weld or cutting questions
and answers to the point. If looking for weld or steel data first look in the
web site,
(all weld programs) or use
key words in the Search Discussion.
The Search Discussion will bring up the history
of the hundreds of questions discussed.
The
University Weld Education Fiasco:  A
sad weld reality. Popular North American colleges and Universities like OSU and
LeTourneau offer "weld degrees" however they place little emphasis on
teaching the potential weld engineers the ability to establish
effective Best Weld Practices or Automated Weld Process Controls.
At most educational facilities, extensive time is often spent on metallurgy
and classroom, text book weld
processes such as Lasers or Electron-Beam.
These processes account for less than one hundredth of one percent of the welds
produced daily. In contrast if the MIG weld test provided at this web site was
given to the students or professors few would pass the test on a process which
accounts for more than eighty percent of the global welds produced daily. This
is not just a North American issue. Europeans may love welding bells and
whistles and the Japanese may love electronics yet the fifty year old MIG process
is mired in process confusion and process myths in all industrial nations.
The global welding industry needs engineers that are Process
Control Experts in the bread and butter processes. Engineers that can "without
playing around" produce cost effective, optimum quality MIG and flux
cored welds. Engineers that can optimize robot weld efficiency. Engineers
that can see through the bells, whistles and salesmanship
that saturates the global weld industry. Engineers
that have the ability to establish cost effective Weld Best Practices .
If weld engineer graduates spent more practical
and classroom time on the global bread and butter 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. Unfortunately this is not likely to happen
in the short term as few universities or colleges hire engineering
department heads, with the ability to recognize what the manufacturing / welding
industry needs and hire professors who have the ability to deliver the process
control education. WELD
QUESTIONS: If asking a question, when relevant please provide robot, manual
or automated process, the material type and weld surface conditions, the part
thickness, the consumable type and size, the weld gas, the wire feed speed, travel
speed, amps and voltage.
Contact
Ed. E-Mail ecraig@weldreality.com
Phone 828
658 3574.
For
the most simple method to develop ASME - API - AWS
weld procedures check out; 
To
visit WPSAmerica
click here
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