INDUSTRY NEWS
9
DEDICATEDWELDING APPRENTICESHIP
IN RESPONSE to the recent UK Government ‘Future of Apprenticeships’ document and recent consultations on apprenticeships, TheWelding Institute is to coordinate, design and deliver a welding apprenticeship trailblazer alongside a number of employers in 2014. Groups of employers/companies have met to develop
more standardised apprenticeships within their respective sectors across a variety of industries in England. As part of Phase 3 of this initiative, TheWelding Institute will support one such trailblazer group for welding. It is also keen to hear from any employers, by 1 July 2014, who are keen to support a welding apprenticeship trailblazer in England (e-mail:
ashley.list@
twi.co.uk). “As the Professional Body for welding in England and the
rest of the UK, TheWelding Institute fully supports the need to better standardise the apprenticeship offering in welding and fabrication in England and, in doing so, improve the quality of these programmes to support the skills need for competent welding personnel,” it explained. “At present, there are 42 different welding qualifications
(at least) shared between six competing awarding organisations. A dedicated welding apprenticeship would facilitate compliance with important standards (e.g. ISO 3834 for manufacturers, EN 1090 for construction and EN 15085 for the railway sector).”
ARCQUALITY CONVINCES OUTOTEC
Finnish high-tech company Outotec, a specialist in minerals and metals processing technology, has installed an ArcQuality welding quality management system from Finnish welding equipment manufacturer, Kemppi Oy. The system will be used for welding operations in its Turula engineering workshop. Outotec is also planning to expand the use of ArcQuality to its other workshops. Plant director, Ilkka Hiltunen, confirmed
that quality control for welding is a key part of the workshop’s activities: “ArcQuality is a modern, up-to-date way of ensuring quality control,” he added. From the beginning, Outotec Turula has
invested in the latest available technology for its production processes. The company has a 21,000m2
production facility along
with an area for pre-treatment. The Turula workshop has around 70 MIG/MAG, TIG and MMA power sources. Welding co-ordinator, Rauno Kakkola,
notes that welding can only be performed by a professional welder whose qualifications are constantly under scrutiny – in very
A welder being instructed in the use of the bar code reader (Kemppi)
few professions is the level of expertise evaluated every six months. “ArcQuality helps in this respect. The
system lets us know, well in advance, about the need to refresh welders’ qualifications,” he explained, observing that, in the past, systematic mistakes may have been made without the welder even realising it. Now any errors can be eliminated straight away and the same applies for mistakes in welding procedure specifications (WPSs). For further details, see
www.kemppi.com
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