NEWS SNIPPETS
Success forAWD atMACH Over 23,000 visitors and a record 612 exhibitors attended the recent MACH 2014 exhibition at the NEC in Birmingham. VIP visitors included Iain Wright MP, the UK Shadow Minister for Manufacturing, and the UK Business Secretary, Dr Vince Cable MP, who also held a roundtable with business leaders to discuss investment, skills, Europe and the problems experienced by SMEs trying to fund growth projects. AWD hosted a successful Welding World Village for its members
during the exhibition as well as holding its AGM and members awards during the event. A full report of its activities, and its members’ product launches, at the show can be found on page 22.
Global skills shortage The results of a ManpowerGroup Talent Shortage Survey in 2013 of nearly 40,000 employers in 42 countries and territories, including more than 1,000 US employers, pinpointed skills as a key shortage. Globally, 35 per cent of employers admitted to having difficulty finding people with the right skills. The top three most challenging positions to fill were skilled trades’ workers, engineers and sales representatives. As an example, sheet metal workers, joiners, metal fabricators, metallurgists and mechanical engineers appear on Australia’s 2014 required skilled occupation lists. Austria has also flagged welding occupations such as: Aluminium welder, Argonac welder, oxyfuel torch operator, oxyfuel cutting torch operator, oxyfuel welder, electric welder, master electric welder, braze welder, boiler welder, point welder, pipe welder, gas-shielded welder, chain welder, universal welder and metalwork technician – welding technology.
Czech welding event The 56th International Engineering Fair will take place from 29 September – 3 October 2014 in Brno (Czech Republic) alongside five other specialised exhibitions: 9th International Trade Fair for Machine Tools (IMT), 15th International Foundry Fair (FOND-EX), 22nd International Welding Engineering Fair (WELDING), 5th International Trade Fair for Surface Technology (PROFINTECH) and 4th International Plastics, Rubber and Composites Fair (PLASTEX). Last year’s event was attended by 1482 exhibitors from
28 countries and 71,447 visitors from 55 countries. For more information see
www.bvv.cz/en/welding.
Flaw assessment Late 2013 saw the publication of a new edition of the long-standing flaw assessment procedure, BS 7910 (‘Guide to methods for assessing the acceptability of flaws in metallic structures’). TWI has been associated with this British Standard, which allows users to set flaw acceptance criteria and sentence flaws found during service or fabrication using fracture mechanics calculations, since its inception in 1980 as document PD 6493. The new edition introduces several significant changes compared
with the earlier (2005) edition, so TWI is running a series of four-day training courses around the world to introduce the standard to both new and existing users. For more information, see
www.twitraining.com. ■
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