Welding & Gases Today Editor’s Blog 
  

Here is an interesting tidbit that might spark some ideas for additional sales of gases and welding equipment in your area.

Local jewelry manufacturers in New Mexico have been given an opportunity to be more competitive, thanks to the Socorro County Chamber of Commerce and a grant from the USDA Rural Business Enterprise fund.

The Chamber purchased $54,000 of state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment to be used cooperatively by local jewelers who meet certain small business criteria.

The equipment includes a laser welder, milling machine and vacuum casting machine.

The community qualified for the grant because it meets federal guidelines of being located in a rural area with high unemployment, low wages and few manufacturing or production jobs. The primary goal of the grant program is to encourage economic development in rural communities by retaining and creating additional jobs.

All the equipment purchased is the property of the federal government. Quarterly reports detailing its use must be submitted for three years as a condition of the grant.

Innovative specialty gases applications for medical use continue to foster exciting new markets for the gases and welding industry.

The latest example comes from Great Britain, where a team of scientists and clinicians at the University of Nottingham are developing a new type of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan for the treatment of chronic lung disease and asthma.

According to a report in Science Daily, The unit will allow doctors to “virtually” view the lungs of patients with the scanner by using a specially-treated harmless gas—Xenon 129—which the patient is given to inhale. Unlike air, the Xenon 129 gas shows up clearly on an MRI scan, giving a detailed picture of damaged and healthy lung areas.

The xenon is “hyperpolarized” with lasers, which make the gas particles detectable in the MRI scanner. While the technique was tried previously using Helium 3, Science Daily reports that Helium 3 is difficult to obtain and is unsuitable for routine clinical work. Xenon 129, on the other hand, is easy to obtain and has the potential to be used widely in clinical settings.

Along with MRI scanning, the new method will further track the xenon gas as it is absorbed into the bloodstream. This will give doctors a clear idea of how well or badly the different parts of the lungs are transferring life-sustaining oxygen. The scans could also be used to guide treatment or aid surgeons performing lung reduction operations.

Diseases to be studied include asthma, lung fibrosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

At present, X-rays or CAT scans are used to investigate lung diseases, which only show the structure of the lung and don’t reveal any detail on how well the lungs are functioning. They also involve a small exposure to radiation which can limit repeat scanning.

Cool compressed oxygen released from under-seat gas cylinders

Ford Motor Company is bringing to market the world’s first automotive inflatable seat belts, combining attributes of traditional seat belts and air bags to provide an added level of crash safety protection for rear seat occupants.

The advanced restraint system is designed to help reduce head, neck and chest injuries for rear seat passengers—often children and older passengers who can be more vulnerable to such injuries.

Vehicle safety sensors determine the severity of the collision in the blink of an eye and deploy the inflatable belts’ air bags.  Each belt’s tubular air bag inflates with cold compressed oxygen, which flows through a specially designed buckle from a cylinder housed below the seat.

The inflatable belt’s accordion-folded bag breaks through the belt fabric as it fills with air, expanding sideways across the occupant’s body in about the same amount of time it takes a car traveling at highway speed to cover a yard of distance.

The use of cold compressed gas instead of a heat-generating chemical reaction—which is typical of traditional air bag systems—means the inflated belts feel no warmer on the wearer’s body than the ambient temperature. The inflatable belt also fills at a lower pressure and a slower rate than traditional air bags because the device does not need to close a gap between the belt and the occupant.

The inflated belt helps distribute crash force energy across five times more of the occupant’s torso than a traditional belt, which expands its range of protection and reduces risk of injury by diffusing crash pressure over a larger area, while providing additional support to the head and neck. After deployment, the belt remains inflated for several seconds before dispersing its air through the pores of the air bag.

Ford is introducing inflatable rear seat belts on the new Ford Explorer, which goes into production this year for the North American market. Ford eventually plans to offer the technology in vehicles globally.

It’s a major annual event for the Gases and Welding Distributors Association—the announcement of the new GAWDA board of directors, who will help lead the association through the coming year.

For 2009-10, we thought we’d handle the introduction a bit differently than in years past, when we would publish photos along with brief Q&As to help association members get to know the board a little better.

This time around, we centered the introduction on the theme of the board of directors as “superheroes” of the association, giving of their time and sharing their industry expertise to help make the association and the industry stronger.

In keeping with that theme, this year we developed a five-page comic-book style treatment to introduce the board, which you can see online at http://www.weldingandgasestoday.org/content/1q10/meetboard2009.pdf.

I hope you like it.

Welding & Gases Today explores important industry issues as the United States sees first signs of economic recovery

The Winter 2010 issue of “Welding & Gases Today”—our annual Forecast Issue—is in the mail and available online right now by clicking the “Current Issue” tab at the top of this page.

There’s plenty of valuable information for distributors in such articles as:

10 Supplier Strategies For Success
Suppliers detail where they will focus their energies and how they will navigate the year ahead.

Distributors Offer 10 Ways To Beat The Business Slump
Lessons learned during the downturn position distributors for growth in 2010.

Specialty Gas Demand To Rise
Data from the 2009 PROFIT Report explain cylinder financials.

Slight Growth For Industrial Gases
Latest report points to increase.

Areas For Success In 2010
Some industrial markets show promise.

The Alphabet Recovery

Plan wisely and you can experience prosperity.

Welding Trends For 2010 And Beyond

The industry is exploding with opportunities for welders.

Contributors offer their expertise in:
ISO Certification
A real boon to operations, sales and customer perceptions of your company.
By Clark Phinney, STS, WSO-CST

The Siren Song of Inventory Reductions
Short-term inventory reduction may impede long-term sales success.
By Albert D. Bates, Ph.D.

Cloud Computing

An IT solution worth looking into.
By George Slogik

Other articles include:

Deep In The Heart Of Texas
Here’s a wagonload of photos from San Antonio!

Meet President Jenny McCall
Personal insights from GAWDA’s 64th president.

Super Jen Plus 10
This band of industry superheroes is ready to take on the challenges that lie ahead.

The Science of Loyalty

Good service keeps customers satisfied. Building trust brings them back.
By James Kane

 Plus, our consultants cover…

DOT Training Requirements
By Michael Dodd

Alternate Cylinder Fill Technologies

By Thomas L. Badstubner

DOT Regulations Come Under Scrutiny

By Richard P. Schweitzer, Esq.

Distributors Should Not Let Guard Down

By Michael Degan

 I hope you’ll spend some time checking out all the issue has to offer. And if you have a topic you’d like covered in a future issue, please drop me a note and let me know!

Scientists have repaired the world’s largest atom smasher

This week, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, has successfully restarted the $10 billion Large Hadron Collider (LHC) after a year of its being out of commission.

The LHC is the world’s highest-energy particle collider, which accelerates protons around a 16-mile underground tube and smashes them together. The purpose is to record the subatomic debris from the collisions so that researchers can piece together what happens when the protons collide. with contributions from many governments and universities around the world.

When the Hadron was initially started, it ran for nine days before an electrical splice overheated due to faulty soldering. As a result, 53 of the collider’s 1,624 large superconducting magnets—some of them 50 feet long—were damaged and had to be replaced.

Additionally, an electric arc punctured a container holding liquid helium used to keep the collider at a temperature colder than outer space for maximum efficiency. Several tons of helium leaked out, causing additional damage.

George Clooney may be the lead star of the new Hollywood film Up in the Air, but a major supporting role was provided by planet Earth through some amazing footage shot by the movie’s aerial director of photography, Dylan Goss.

Clooney plays businessman Ryan Bingham, a man who spends the majority of his life in airplanes and hotel rooms as he crisscrosses the country for his job as hatchet man for corporations that are downsizing and laying off employees.

During many of the airplane scenes, the audience shares Clooney’s airline-window view of the dazzling Earth below.

To capture these images, Goss spent a week in the ice-cold backend of a Cessna airplane flying at 15,000 feet (aerial photography is typically filmed at less than 1,000 feet), wrapped in winter clothing and breathing oxygen through a mask connected to a gas cylinder.

To keep his camera lens from clouding over in the frigid temperatures, Goss sealed the camera in a glass sphere that was attached to the plane’s fuselage. The sphere was then pumped full of argon gas to prevent the lens from fogging.

The result? Some amazing aerial cinematography that would not have been possible had it not been for Goss’s resourceful industrial gases applications.

Recently I participated in a highly informative webinar led by social networking guru David Nour, which served as a great reminder of just how important social networking has become for building professional relationships.

Welding & Gases Today is right in the thick of it, not only through this blog, but also through social networks Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

You can follow us on Twitter at @Weldmeister…

become a fan of the magazine on Facebook…

keep up on quick news and information from me on My Facebook Page…

and become one of my LinkedIn contacts by visiting this page (where there’s also a LinkedIn GAWDA Association group!).

Social networking is an amazing tool for reaching out to fellow industry professionals, current customers, potential customers and so much more. If you’re already involved, great! I hope you’ll use these tools to keep in touch with me and share your ideas, opinions and story ideas for this blog, the magazine, the Web site and more.

If you aren’t taking advantage of social networking, I hope you’ll take the plunge very soon. You’ll find all sorts of contacts just waiting to hear from you!

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has released a new video safety message asking for nationwide adoption of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Pressure Vessel Code to reduce the number of accidents involving major pressure vessel failures.

In the message, CSB Chairman John Bresland warns that “pressure vessels store tremendous amounts of energy and you should never become complacent about the risks.”

Particular danger exists when vessels are improperly installed, welded or modified, or when they lack effective pressure relief systems, Bresland says, and provides the following examples:

• An explosion at a natural gas well in Louisiana killed four workers when a tank rated only for atmospheric pressure was exposed to gas pressure up to 800 lbs. per sq. in.
• An eight-foot tank used to heat sugar caramel exploded when the vent line became blocked. The explosion killed an overnight operator, released large amounts of ammonia and forced a community evacuation.
• A 50,000 lb. pressure vessel that exploded at a chemical plant was found by CSB to be improperly modified and welded by the company that owned it.

The ASME Code provides the fundamental safeguards for pressure vessels including design, welding procedures and fabrication, testing and pressure relief.

Are you still mulling over the value of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, GAWDAwiki and other social networking sites to enhance your business? Perhaps the Inc. 500 can help you decide once and for all.

The Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth recently conducted a new in-depth and statistically significant study on the usage of social media in fast-growing corporations. This new study revisits the Center’s study of Inc. 500 social media usage for the third consecutive year, making it a valuable and rare longitudinal study of corporate use of these new technologies.

The new study compares adoption of social media over three years (2007, 2008 and 2009) by the Inc. 500, a list of the fastest-growing private U.S. companies compiled annually by Inc. Magazine. For details about the 2009 Inc. 500 and the complete directory of the included companies, please visit Inc. Magazine’s website at www.Inc.com.

In 2007, the Center’s first study of this group and their use of social media was released and revealed that the Inc. 500 was outpacing the more traditional and larger Fortune 500 companies in their use of social media. For example, at that time, some research showed that 8% of the Fortune 500 companies were blogging compared to 19% of the Inc. 500. This difference continued in 2008 with 16% of the Fortune 500 blogging vs. 39% of the Inc. 500. And it appears the Inc. 500’s lead in blogging will continue in 2009 with the Inc. 500 now blogging at a rate of 45%.

As in the earlier studies, the 2009 study is the result of a nationwide telephone survey of those companies named by Inc. Magazine to the Inc. 500 list under the direction of researchers Nora Ganim Barnes and Eric Mattson. All interviews took place in October and November of 2009. The 2009 list was released in the September issue of Inc. Magazine. In this third iteration, thirty percent (148) of the Inc. 500 participated, making this research statistically valid at +/- 7%.

This research proves once again that social media has penetrated parts of the business world at a tremendous speed. It also indicates that corporate familiarity with and usage of social media within the Inc. 500 has continued to grow in the past 12 months.

Learn more about the Center for Marketing Research social networking study at  http://www.umassd.edu/cmr/studiesresearch/socialmedia2009.pdf