This weekend, the country’s attention turns to football. And with it, it’s a perfect time to recognize the gases and welding hard at work behind the scenes of the Super Bowl. As the title says, you can’t have a Super Bowl without gases and welding. Even if you could, why would you want to?
The game is being hosted in Indianapolis this year, and in February, that means it’s going to be cold. Thanks to propane supplied by Ferrell Gas Company, local fans will be able to keep warm. Tents are going up all over downtown Indy, and the Office of Code Enforcement is requiring that they be heated for safety reasons. The Super Bowl committee uses propane because it burns clean, with low odor and emissions, and it’s not affected if the power goes out.
Fans staying in any of the 4,700-plus hotel rooms connected to the Indiana Convention Center, on the other hand, can thank their warmth to welding. That’s because those fans will never have to walk outside to get to the game. The ICC is connected to Lucas Oil Stadium by climate-controlled pedestrian walkways (pictured at right). Judging from the pictures, strong welds are definitely key to supporting these steel-and-glass skywalks.
Within Lucas Oil Stadium, where the game will be played, there are 16,000 tons of steel. The stadium has a first-of-its kind SuperFrame Structural System with a unique two-panel moving roof design. The roof itself is supported on five rails. Also, the stadium, which normally has 63,000, has boosted its capacity to 70,000 for Super Bowl XLVI. Sounds like a lot of welding to me.
Of course, gases are at work throughout the game, whether it’s helium balloons, medical oxygen on the sidelines or carbon dioxide making sure fans’ drinks are nice and foamy. GAWDA member Cyl-Tec designed and installed the entire nine tank cryogenic CO2 beverage system within Lucas Oil Stadium. The system stores pressurized, liquefied gas, with a high capacity for vaporization that allows more gas per volume.
Finally, if you’re in town for the game and you’re in the mood for a steak, it turns out Indy offers a venue unlike any other. Dunaway’s Palazzo Ossigeno (“Oxygen Building” in Italian) is housed in a building formerly used for the manufacture of bottled oxygen and hydrogen up until 1991. The Indiana Oxygen Building, as it is known, was built in 1930 by the GAWDA member of the same name. No word on whether knowing the building’s former owners can help you get a reservation.
Also, for recommended reading, be sure to check out “Gases And Welding In The Big Game,” which talks about how welding and gases were at work in last year’s Super Bowl—starting with the fact that the host stadium’s arches alone have over 165,000 ft. of welding.







Do traditional selling methods hold up in today’s technological world? I happened to catch yesterday’s episode of Sunday Morning, which revisited the teachings of one of the icons of selling, Dale Carnegie. Carnegie is famous for his “good guy” approach to sales—influencing people through kindness. One of the interesting questions raised by Sunday Morning is how Carnegie’s teachings translate to a technological age, where selling can be done through email.

With the holiday season, I’ve seen a few videos of groups performing helium-infused Christmas carols. However, inhaling helium can be extremely dangerous, as it displaces oxygen, so such acts fall under the “do-not-try-this-at-home” category. A video I saw today, however, shows a much safer use of helium.
In a competitive field like gases and welding, who doesn’t appreciate a referral every once in a while? Word of mouth is consistently cited by distributors as one of their best forms of marketing. And customers, too, place a lot of trust in word of mouth to make their buying decisions. With that in mind, I wonder to what extent distributors are paying attention to online reviews of their business, if at all.
