Improving Global Quality of Life

5.2 Higher automation, productivity and quality control
In every country, there is a relentless fight to maintain orders by increasing the productivity and improving
the quality and the working environment. One simple means is to change the arc welding process from
MMA to MIG/MAG or FCAW, which has been the case for many years in Western Europe, the USA and Japan
as illustrated in Figure 5.10.
Figure 5.10 Changes in welding procedures (Reproduced courtesy: ESAB)
One will certainly see a faster conversion from MMA in the Asian countries (62 % in China) than the ones
shown in Figure 5.10. The amount of deposited weld metal in China is about 1.1M tons (Figure 5.11) or
more than Japan, USA and Europe deposited together. China consumes more than one third of the total for
the world, which amounts to 2,923 million tons. China has much more submerged arc welding (13%) than
Western Europe (5%) due to the higher amount of plate welding consumed in the construction and shipyard
industries.
ktons
1200000
1000000
800000
600000
Figure 5.11 Consumption
of weld metal 2004 in
some countries and regions
(Reproduced courtesy:
B. Pekkari)
400000
200000
0
Sweden India Korea Asean Japan North Europe P.R.
America China
SAW
FCW
MIG/MAG
MMA
Arc welding will remain the most important joining process and its use will continue growing quickly in Asia
as forecast in Figure 5.11.
42 Improving Global Quality of Life Through Optimum Use and Innovation of Welding and Joining Technologies