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A Technology Roadmap for Welding and Joining in Canada — A Profile of the Materials Joining Industry
Table of Contents
- Foreword
- A Technology Roadmap for Welding and Joining in Canada — 2006 to 2016
- Executive Summary
- Introduction
- A Profile of the Materials Joining Industry
- The Challenges to the Canadian Welding and Joining Industry
- Vision and Goals
- Applying the Vision to Unravel the Downward Spiral
- A Solutions Matrix for Welding and Joining in Canada
- Projects — Making the Vision Happen
- Concluding Remarks
- Appendix A — Welding and Joining TRM Steering Committee Members
- Appendix B — Welding and Joining TRM Forum Participants
- What Is Materials Joining? What is Welding?
- The Welding "Industry" Is a Community of Different Industries — a Critical Enabling Technology for Many
- Welding's Economic Contribution — One-Third of the Canadian GNP
- Up to 300 000 Jobs
- Manufacturing Is Undervalued
- Still in Need of a "Serious Makeover"
What is Materials Joining? What Is Welding?
Welding and Joining — the art, science and engineering prowess of making metals and increasingly other advanced materials join together and function as one.
Most people take it for granted that cars, trains, refrigerators, computers, pipes and a wide range of other articles that we see everyday simply "exist". As a society we appear less and less curious as to how things are made. And yet, joining basic materials and shapes to achieve something new is fundamental to our lives.
Welding is part of this broader concept of "materials joining". This is the process of bonding one material to another to create new products and innovative shapes and designs — for both product manufacturing and product maintenance/repair. The range of materials that can be joined is ever increasing and includes metals, polymers, ceramics and emerging composites. Some materials are joined with a wide variety of adhesives, as is used in the lamination of wood products or the attachment of ceramic tiles to the Space Shuttle.
In spite of the wide range of materials that are now being joined, the joining of metals remains the largest industry segment. Metal joining techniques may include mechanical fastening such as riveting and bolting, often seen in the construction of bridges. But from an economic point of view, welding is the preferred method for joining metal parts.
Advanced technology is now the norm.
Welding, as a manufacturing process, is the act of joining a range of material components to form an assembly to satisfy one or more functions. To accomplish atomic or molecular bonding, welding may involve heat, pressure or a combination of both. More than 100 welding processes are in use today from the very common arc welding to more exotic types such as advanced laser or friction-stir.
Most manufactured products require that different parts be joined. The technology for doing so continues to develop. For example, laser welding is now widely utilized in the automotive industry. Great advances in joining technology have been made, and the field keeps rolling forward, incorporating leading-edge science, information technology, robotics and advanced manufacturing materials.
The Welding "Industry" is a Community of Different Industries — a Critical Enabling Technology for Many
Welding is not just one industry but a community of many different industries across Canada. The industry is comprised of
- User industries — manufacturing, fabrication, construction and repair industries.
- Welding and welding-related equipment and product manufacturers.
- A wide range of service industries that include engineering consultants, regulatory agencies, research and development organizations and education and training institutions.
Canada has a number of key user industries for which welding is a "critical enabling technology" — that is to say a technology that is fundamental to the manufacturing process. The major user industries of welding and joining in Canada are microjoining (electronics, medical equipment, telecommunications), aerospace, automotive and transportation, structural steel products, petrochemical and pressure vessels, pipelines and tubing, power generation and the resource industries of mining, forestry and agriculture as well as a wide range of other light and heavy manufacturing industries. It is these industries that represent the strength of the Canadian manufacturing advantage.
Welding's Economic Contribution — One-Third of the Canadian GNP
When all of the above user industries of welding and joining are taken into account, the contribution to the Canadian GNP is indeed huge. Using the benchmarks identified in a study of the welding industry in the United States (American Welding Society: Welding-Related Expenditures, Investments and Productivity Measurement in U.S. Manufacturing, Construction and Mining Industries) the following estimates have been calculated for Canada for the year 2000.
- The revenue of the user industries in Canada for which welding is a critical enabling technology represents one-third of the Canadian Gross National Product (GNP).
- Welding-related expenditure in the key user industries is over $5 billion, of which payments to employees represent 70 percent ($3.7 billion).
- The Canadian market for the sale of welding materials to user industries is about $800 million.
By its very nature, the welding industry is widely dispersed across Canada — as are the industries for which welding is an enabling technology. However, certain segments of the industry are more localized than others. For instance, a report by the Edmonton Economic Development Corporation on the Needs and Developments in Alberta Welding and Joining Technology Services demonstrates the relative concentration of metal products manufacturing in Canada.
This exhibit demonstrates the importance of centres such as Hamilton, Edmonton, Toronto and Montreal but, in fact, all regions of the country have some form of specialized welding and joining activity such as shipbuilding/repair and offshore platforms in the Maritimes, aerospace in Quebec, automobiles in Ontario and, oil and gas in Alberta.
Up to 300 000 Jobs
In Canada, welding represents about 75 000 jobs at the technician and welding operator level. By including occupations where welding is either a specialized skill or an integral part of the operation, as well as occupations associated with the welding process such as design engineers and managers, the welding-related workforce in Canada is in the range of 300 000. The largest industry segment is metal and machinery manufacturing, followed by construction and motor vehicles.
Manufacturing Is Undervalued
One of the negative results of the advance of the "service economy" and the "information technology revolution" has been to create the impression in the minds of young people and of many policy makers that manufacturing is no longer important in today's world. Nothing could be further from reality. While it is true that direct employment in the North American manufacturing sector has been declining over the past 25 years, the value of output has been constantly increasing — keeping pace with the overall growth in GDP. Furthermore, many analysts often fail to recognize the myriad jobs that are created in marketing, selling, distributing and transporting "manufactured products" so that they become available "goods" throughout the country. This is indeed "value added" by the manufacturing sector for the benefit of society as a whole. Indeed many of the "service economy" companies such as Intel are also manufacturers who expend a great deal of energy in improving the entire manufacturing value chain.
An added factor is that welding and joining will continue to advance as the manufacturing and construction industries take on new vistas throughout the world and major new consumer societies come into play — China, India, Indonesia and a host of others.
Still in Need of a "Serious Makeover"
Welding itself is further disadvantaged by an unattractive image often limited to a picture of a welder in a mask with sparks flying everywhere. For many, welding is stereotyped as a hazardous, labour-intensive occupation.
However, what most people do not realize is that modern welding is characterized by a wide range of science-based skills that stretch from the skilled welder putting together a major pipeline to the engineer, scientist, computer-assisted industrial designer and the international business executive, selling Canadian welding "solutions" worldwide. The fact is that the welding industry employs increasing numbers of highly educated people that are both well-paid and motivated to move the industry forward in a technology-driven world.
So while welding and joining is indeed an integral part of the manufacturing process that produces goods for society, it faces a multitude of challenges over the next ten years — even beyond its overall image and the limited perception of the importance of manufacturing. The key challenges are outlined in the next section.
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