Freedom To Learn . . . Freedom to Earn! Freedom…what better place to celebrate and salute it than in Washington, D.C., on May 5 and 6 when GAWDA Distributors and Suppliers will be in our nation's capital to focus on ways to improve their businesses. GAWDA's second Spring Management Conference will offer the same compelling, in-depth, interactive programming applauded by the record crowd in Chicago last month. Read what they had to say about this amazing conference, which is being repeated in Washington. GAWDA will offer 12 presentations by industry experts in each of three areas affecting your daily business operations: 1) Owner/Executive Management, 2) Sales Management, and 3) Operations Management. Nowhere will you and your management team receive greater value for your investment of time and money! Please click here for a complete list of presentations and speaker bios. The SMC will begin on Wednesday, May 5 at 7 a.m. and end at 12 noon on Thursday, May 6. All sessions, as well as the Contact Booth Program, take place under one roof at GAWDA's host hotel, the Hyatt Regency Crystal City at Reagan National Airport. For more information about the hotel, please click here. Non-Members Encouraged to Attend – GAWDA welcomes all prospective members to take part in this valuable Spring Management Conference. Non-members must sign up at the full delegate rate on GAWDA's Advance Registration form in order to participate in the entire SMC, including the Contact Booth Program and Reception. GAWDA will reimburse the cost of one full delegate registration to prospective members who join GAWDA. Contact Dan Cleary, director of membership & marketing at GAWDA, to learn more about this special offer: dcleary@fernley.com or 215-564-3484, ext. 209.
Online
Contact Booth Goes Live Today Don't miss
this opportunity to be among the industry's best and brightest. Airgas-Intermountain Confidently Proposes New Technology Three years ago, Mike Weaver won a sales contest. The prize was a trip to Appleton, Wisconsin.
Weaver, account manager for construction, industrial and fabrication at Airgas-Intermountain in Salt Lake City, UT, is not your average salesperson. An opportunity to visit Miller headquarters and hob knob with the people who design and build the products he sells was a dream come true. It was on a tour of the plant that Weaver came across an engineer working on a design using variable balance AC submerged arc technology. They spent time talking, Weaver fascinated with the technology, the Miller engineer fascinated with the “real-live” challenges Weaver met in the field. Last summer, Weaver was visiting a regular customer, St. George Steel Fabrication in Salt Lake City, a company specializing in large, heavy weldments: wind towers, pressure vessels, dryers, stacks, petroleum and water tanks. The company was awarded a contract for 20 more windmills, but was reluctant to take it on unless their welding process could be improved. The project involved transforming 10 x 40 feet sheets of 5/8-inch carbon steel into shells 20 feet in diameter. The shells were then welded together to form cylinders 40 feet long. The welding method, using a DC process, put too much heat at the weld and had a high deposition rate. Welds were made along the inside and outside of the cylinder's circumference. One cylinder took from 12 to 15 hours to complete.
Weaver remembered his visit to Appleton and his conversations with the Miller engineer, and confidently told the customer, “I have a way for you to improve your process.” He explains, “I knew Miller Electric had the ability to fix this problem with their new product, so I was confident in promising that we could double St. George Steel's travel speed and keep the heat out of the material by using an AC, rather than a DC, arc.” Working with Ken Fisher, Miller's manager of high deposition processes, Weaver suggested the Miller Summit Arc1000 power source that could provide variable balance AC sub arc technology. A splitter shifts the welding output between two Miller HDC 1500 control systems, RAD wire drive assemblies, flux hoppers and OBT 1200 torch. One assembly is positioned at the top of a platform to weld the outside passes (the first and last pass), and one is positioned on the shop floor to weld the inside pass. Using the Miller machine, two complete units could be welded in one, eight-hour shift, reducing weld time by 60%. St. George Steel purchased two Miller Summit Arc 1000 power sources. The $40,000 sale took place in August. Account Manager Mike Weaver is ready for his next visit to Appleton to learn about new products in development that will help his customers be more efficient and productive. GAWDA welcomes new Associate Member Leaders LLC of Lexington, MA. INDUSTRY
BEAT
Wholesaler Survey Shows New Jobs Coming • A survey conducted by the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors (NAW) in March shows new jobs are coming. Fifty-eight of the nation's largest wholesaler-distributors with collective annual sales of $177 billion participated in the survey. The survey indicates that 67% of the respondents intend to increase their workforce this year. On average, these companies will grow their number of employees by 4.7%. Survey respondents credit the president's tax cuts and incentives for triggering much of the growth in business they are seeing. At the same time, they caution that rising health care costs are dampening full profit recovery. When GAWDA distributors were asked this question, 41% said they plan to add people this year, as reported in the March issue of Welding & Gases Today. You can read GAWDA's full industry report by clicking here. Asbestos Bill Will Fail, Says Orrin Hatch • The chief sponsor of a compromise bill that would compensate victims of asbestos poisoning has conceded that it is not likely to attract enough bipartisan support to win Senate approval this year. Senate Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT) says the latest effort to pass asbestos litigation reform, introduced during the second week of April, probably won't receive enough Democratic votes to succeed. Opposition to the bill has come from both sides; trial lawyers and organized labor say it does not do enough to help people who were made sick by asbestos exposure, while some industry groups say it punishes companies too much and would force many more businesses to close. For several years, industry groups have been lobbying for Congress to take asbestos-related lawsuits out of the courtroom. Dozens of companies have been forced into bankruptcy because of their use of the fire-proofing material, which has been shown to cause severe respiratory problems. Hatch says that trial lawyers stand to gain at least $60 billion from asbestos litigation if the current system is not reformed. Welding rod
and fume litigation is often compared to the asbestos litigation.
A complete update and analysis of the fume litigation issue will
appear in the June issue of Welding & Gases Today. Depke Acquires Claudin Welding Supply (Danville, IL) • Depke Gases & Welding Supplies acquired Claudin Welding Supply (Champaign, IL). This is the second acquisition for Depke. Russ and Carol Carter, the previous owners of Claudin, have retired after over 30 years in the industry. Curt Towne, president of Depke, says the company will continue to use Claudin Welding Supply's location and five of its employees. Patterson Joins Albright Welding Supply (Wooster, OH) • Greg Patterson joins the Albright Welding Supply team as service manager. He brings 15 years of maintenance and management experience to his new position. Patterson is a certified journeyman maintenance mechanic and is currently pursuing a mechanical engineering degree from Stark State College of Technology. Kobelco Appoints New President (Houston, TX) • Kobelco Welding of America Inc. appointed Alan (Akihiko) Egami president on April 1. Egami replaces Duke Kawaue, who will return to Japan in May to serve in a new position. SBA Proposes Rule to Restructure Small Business Size Standards • The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) recently proposed a rule significantly restructuring its small business size standards. The current small business size standard for all of wholesale trade (NAICS Sector 42) is 500 employees for federal procurements and 100 employees for SBA and other federal programs. This proposal would reduce the small business size standard for federal procurements to 100 employees. The shift from a 500 employee size standard to one of 100 employees is estimated to affect 744 firms doing business with the federal government. The proposed rule can be read at www.sba.gov/size/indexwhatsnew.html#restructurePR. SBA is seeking comment on or before May 18 on 12 issues which are listed on page 18 in the text version, and on page 13138 of Volume 69 of the Federal Register. Question 10 deals directly with the proposal's action relevant to wholesale trade. Comments may be submitted via e-mail to restructure.sizestandards@sba.gov. Industry Heating Up • With spring officially here and the temperature warming up, be sure you're not left out in the cold. Check out Welding & Gases Today Online to learn how employers can save taxes and money on health insurance premiums with the new Health Savings Account. Find out how distributors are planning to increase sales despite industry challenges by reading the 2004 Industry Forecast. Learn how to avoid the pitfalls of management succession through careful planning. W> has all this, plus features on ethics in the gases and welding industry, the outlook for medical gases and much more. Click here to read it online now! All articles are sorted by topic and name.
"Stainless
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