Reducing the gap of awareness in welding

By OEM Update Editorial June 18, 2019 11:31 am IST

Spreading awareness digitally will help one reach out to the global welders; making the boundaries disappear, says Shailesh Mittal, Director, Mitco Weld Products Pvt. Ltd. He discusses the urgency to educate companies about the importance of welding so as to continuously adjust themselves to changing scenarios of Indian manufacturing industry.

Was Make in India a success for India’s welding industry?
Make in India is definitely showing some impact in India’s welding industry. Now, some people are focussing more on importing technology rather than importing final products. However, because of technical know-how, the final products manufactured here are of inferior quality. Since welding is more related to engineering, there is an urgent need to step up R&D. However, factors such as labour issues, lack of funds, payment delays and corruption dissuade people from setting up a manufacturing plant in India.

How is Arcon contributing to Digital India’s efforts to empower intelligent welding?
Digital India, if properly used, can be of great use to spread awareness in welding industry. This is because, digitally, one can be connected remotely anywhere in world. Towards this endeavour, we at Arcon Group of Companies, make 3D videos of various products explaining factors that need to be kept in mind while using these products. In this way, we can reach to welders not only all over India, but also all over world. Blogs and online tutorials are some of the other steps that can be taken towards spreading awareness digitally.

What is your perspective on welding industry as the key element between success and failure of a product?
Generally, the cost of welding, as proportion of total cost is very minimal. Hence, the top management does not give much consideration to same. Due to this, inferior quality products are being used in welding processes, which leads to accidents. Also, there is lack of education regarding importance of welding in a project.

What are your suggestions to accept welding as an integral process?
There is an urgent need to educate companies about the importance of welding. For this, every company should hire professionals having knowledge of welding. Also, seminars need to be conducted to educate people about important for effective welding.

How do you view the trend of welding two different metals in a manufactured product?
With the growth in technology, now, welding of many dissimilar materials are being used to provide greater strength and more efficient material. This has given designers lot of flexibility to incorporate different materials in the same product. Innovation towards this end only has helped innovation in lot many industries. This in itself shows importance of welding.

How do you view your industry’s roadmap for the future?
Welding industry seems to have a very bright future. This is because there is increasing awareness about importance of welding. Also, with each industry trying to reduce its labour costs, there is an increasing demand for innovation so as to reduce dependence on labour. There is now increased focus on safety. Hence, there are fast changes in technology that is happening in the welding industry.

Welding helps in setting up strong foundation of project and if foundation is not strong then results will not be desirable
Shailesh Mittal, Director, Mitco Weld Products Pvt Ltd