NEWS 15 LINCOLN ELECTRIC
CELEBRATES CONFERENCE SUCCESS
Lincoln Electric hosted the Association for Welding, Fabrication, Training and Education’s (AWFTE) annual conference at their UK head office based in Aston, Sheffield.
The conference featured a number of industry speakers including Chris Eady, Associate Director Professional Affairs of The Welding Institute (TWI), Gina McDowell, Project Manager SEMTA and Andy Brown, Director of ECITB, who all discussed issues based on this year’s theme of ‘Securing fabrication and welding trades for now and the future’. There were also a number of special guest speakers including MP Stephen McPartland, speaking about ‘Bridging the Gap Between Industry and Young People’, and Find A Future’s Christine Doubleday speaking on ‘The Value of Skills Competitions to Business’. Local sculptor Steve Mehdi closed the event with a presentation on the
‘Yorkshire Man of Steel’, which was described by numerous delegates as ‘inspirational’. Delegates were also generous with their praise for their hosts, highlighting that the “networking was excellent and the facilities were second to none”, with “helpful, knowledgeable staff”. Speaking of Lincoln’s involvement,
AWFTE Chairman Nicholas Marshall has said “Lincoln Electric provided us with such a unique setting for our speakers to address a captivated delegation from the world of welding, training and education. They extended a very warm welcome and included a tour of the UK’s only remaining
M.I.G wire factory, as well as offering valuable technical advice. The conference was a great success and all delegates left with complimentary bag containing the latest training materials and promotional items. Thank you Lincoln for being the ultimate hosts”. Lincoln’s Commercial Director Mike Chalmers added; “To stage such an event required a considerable amount of planning, preparation and hard work by our team. I would like to thank everyone who contributed to the success of the event and we look forward to hosting similar events in the future.” l
INNOVATION AWARD WINNER TWI lands NDA innovation award for cutting-edge approach to decommissioning of nuclear skips
TWI’s laser experts have been recognised by the UK Nuclear Decommissioning Authority with a prestigious award for the successful introduction of a new technology to decommission radioactive metal storage containers. The team developed a remote cutting system – utilising TWI’s laser cutting technology – over a two-year period, culminating in full trials at Hinkley Point A. The new approach is expected to bring savings to the UK of hundreds of millions of pounds. Magnox Ltd has a large number of radioactive metal storage containers which have been used over many years for storing and moving fuel elements for the UK’s Magnox reactors. Currently, the cost of storing low- and intermediate-level nuclear waste is related to the volume of the parts. The estimated cost of storing one such container for its lifetime is £0.5
million. There are around 300 such containers at Hinkley Point and upwards of 2000 at Sellafield.
Although laser cutting is a well- established method for precision cutting of metals, it has only recently been applied to decommissioning. Magnox Ltd wanted to investigate an approach for breaking down metal storage containers – also known as nuclear skips – which would result in a significant reduction in the amount of active material needing storage. Notably, radioactivity in these skips is restricted to within 1.5mm of the material surface.
TWI was able to demonstrate that by using robotics to address positioning tolerances, its remote one-pass laser cutting technology can be used to quickly and safely divide a Magnox nuclear skip into five pieces. From here the pieces pass
into a five-axis milling machine, their geometries are scanned and 1.5mm cut away from exposed surfaces. The resulting active material forms a mass of just over 50kg, compared to the 450kg weight of an empty contaminated skip. The newly cut mass also has a high packing density, so the volume remaining in storage is significantly reduced. Remaining (non-active) steel can be melted and recycled.
The facility has been designed such that it can be remobilised on another nuclear site. TWI Chief Executive Christoph Wiesner said: ‘We are delighted that the NDA has recognised the hard work of the teams at TWI, Magnox and Fanuc Robotics. Remote laser cutting is one innovative solution making a real difference to decommissioning procedures in the UK, at the same time as substantially reducing costs.’ l
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