Improving Global Quality of Life

9 Needs and challenges of major industry sectors for future applications
9.1.9 Hot topics
Research and development of solar panel materials and associated joining technologies.
Research and development of corrosion and fatigue properties of welds associated with increasing
height of wind towers, and development of new design, fabrication and welding technologies.
Development of new welding technologies and procedures to support innovation in battery and
fuel cell design and fabrication.
9.2 Manufacturing sector
The use of advanced technology is a precondition to guarantee economic, safe and high quality manufacturing.
Lately, manufacturing has decreased in Europe, America and Japan with the focus moving to Asia. PR China
in particular is becoming an increasingly potent force in the global market place particularly in heavy
machinery and manufacturing other industrial parts. China’s manufacturing production value is growing in
line with the world’s number one manufacturer, the USA. In recent years, China’s wage rates are rising, and
with rising transportation costs due to high oil prices this will further affect the situation.
Resource-intensive manufacturing industries will not return to Europe but will move to lower-paying
countries. Traditionally, these countries have sought to optimise the use of cheap available labour with
minimal capital expenditure. It is now being seen that utilising a higher capital expenditure to labour ratio
will not automatically lead to higher unemployment rates, as predicted by the traditional view. Instead,
greater employment opportunities can be generated as a result of higher output growth brought about by
technological progress embodied in new capital investments.
For example, the production of construction machinery is almost evenly shared by Europe, America and Asia.
In the near future, the manufacturers of construction machinery will be forced to reduce environmental
impact with energy-saving measures and improved safety measures. The adoption of new technologies for
more efficient products will be required.
9.2.1 Joining technology in the production process - Actual status and trends
In the past, processes using joining technology, particularly using welding technology, were carried out
separately from the other manufacturing processes for a product because of their special attendant
circumstances in fabrication, particularly because of dust, heat and noise emissions as well as often
complicated tests. This is connected with an extra scope of work and extra costs for transport and intermediate
storage. Moreover, the results of the welding and joining processes frequently cannot be proven on the
finished product at justifiable expense. Apart from the product testing, other quality-assuring measures
must be applied for this reason. Another factor relates to the wide diversity of the available welding and
joining processes from which the optimum process for product manufacture must be selected depending on
the material, the stresses, the accessibility, the experience, the availability and the costs.
To an increasing extent, the ever greater diversity of materials and their combined utilisation depending
on the specific weight in question and on the respective stresses in a product are leading to a material mix
in technical products. Therefore, these materials must not only be joined with each other ever more often
but also in ever more complex joining processes. Conventional welding and joining processes with further
development are available for this purpose.
Through Optimum Use and Innovation of Welding and Joining Technologies
Improving Global Quality of Life
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