Improving Global Quality of Life

9 Needs and challenges of major industry sectors for future applications
This is a scope of work connected with additional costs compared with the manufacture of non-joined
components or products. This must be compensated for by advantages:
Material savings
Weight saving
More suitable design
Great flexibility in the fabrication
Conservation of resources
In spite of the described peculiarities, development is heading towards the integration of the joining
processes into the fabrication chains in such a way that they do not impair the fabrication sequences.
This not only leads to shorter throughput times but also sets stringent requirements on the reliability and
cleanliness of the joining processes and of the tests connected with them.
Production using joining technology and safety at work
Joining technology utilises materials from which very specific hazards to the employees and the environment
may originate if safety at work and appropriate health protection measures are not observed (see
Chapter 6.2). When gas torches, arcs and laser and electron beams are used, provision must be made for
corresponding radiation, eye and heat protection. Extraction and room venting units with suitable filters
must be utilised against any arising fumes, dusts and gases and vapours harmful to health. In some cases,
new knowledge also leads to the prohibition of the utilisation of certain filler materials, such as the use of
solders containing lead. If welding technology is used for the processing of materials with alloying elements
harmful to health, provision may have to be made for particular protective measures for the welders and
the operators in order to comply with the recommended limiting values, e.g. of certain manganese, nickel
or chromium compounds in fumes and dusts. Suitable devices, facilities and protective clothing must be
not only available but also used. Moreover, the hazard potential of a few joining processes themselves is
occasionally underestimated and this results in fires.
It must be borne in mind that safety measures apply to building sites as well and not just to the fabrication
in factory workshops.
At IIW, Commission VIII is not only intensively concerned with the complex range of subjects but is also
ensuring that demands or complaints are not exaggerated.
Production using joining technology and simulation
In order to be able to integrate joining processes into fabrication chains quickly and reliably, their complete
simulation is desirable. There is still a considerable need for development here. For this purpose, particular
interest centres not only on the simulation of the processes but also on their results because cost-intensive
and time-consuming tests can be saved in this way. To this end however, significance is attached to the exact
physical knowledge of the processes as well as to the behaviour of the materials during their processing.
When simulation tools are considered, the results portrayed can frequently be optimised even further
because boundary conditions are taken into account to an insufficient extent. In the simulation and
modelling fields, the representation of reality using digital tools today, sometimes still necessitates hardware
requirements which are not available to a lot of users.
For joining technology, non-optimum models and a lack of model parameters today sometimes still result
in inaccuracies in the modelling and these cannot be tolerated. In part, these are multiplied in such a way
that generated modelling operations cannot be utilised for joining technology. Moreover, data exchange is
Through Optimum Use and Innovation of Welding and Joining Technologies
Improving Global Quality of Life
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