Smarter, bigger, faster, safer: how welding technology is meeting the challenges of the twenty-first...
Welding has the image of being a down-to-earth, hands-on activity, but a lot rides on it in terms of safety, both to plant and to personnel. A skills shortage makes the task of training enough welders more urgent. This is where technology comes in: the welding tools being developed today are smarter, (sometimes) bigger, faster and safer than before. More ergonomic tools and robotics will go a long way towards filling the skills gap.
Communications: a ‘must-have’ tool for a materials engineer
SSW first had the pleasure of meeting Material and Inspection Specialist Mrs. Sari Musch in September 2015 when visiting the Neste refinery at Porvoo, Finland. There, in the company’s central office, she kindly outlined some of her work related to stainless steels. Two years later, SSW found it high time for a return trip to Finland to catch up with Mrs. Musch and her many and varied projects.
Solid endless stainless belts in medical & pharmaceutical applications
Traditionally, the medical and pharmaceutical industries have been highly conservative and regulated environments where changes in material take inordinate amounts of time, primarily driven by the proclivity to corrosion of those materials. Due to their nature and specific applications, devices designed for medical or pharmaceutical uses must meet extremely demanding design and manufacturing criteria.
“Them thar rocks”: shale gas holds its own in a difficult market
Despite the dip in oil and gas prices, things are going remarkably well in the shale gas sector. Although there have been layoffs and bankruptcies, the demand for natural gas is increasing, and this rising tide is lifting shale in North America and other countries throughout the world. New technologies make the sector more competitive, which is good news for all suppliers to the sector and will stimulate related industries such as water treatment and desalination.
Working with CRAs in the subsea, offshore, and onshore industries
FMC Technologies and Technip came together in January 2017 to form TechnipFMC, a company dedicated to improving the performance of the world’s energy industry. A global leader in oil and gas projects, technologies, systems, and services, TechnipFMC is divided into three business segments: subsea, onshore/ offshore, and surface. The company employs more than 40,000 people across 48 countries.