GAWDA Edge Blog 
  

In the tradition of the casual Friday blog entry, started by my predecessors at the GAWDA Edge blog, here’s an interesting video to supplement the latest issue of GAWDA Edge. As you learned in the August issue that came out yesterday, Bellingham Technical College’s Welding Rodeo is a welding sculpture competition. At the end of the contest, sculptures are auctioned off to raise money for scholarships.

Here’s a video of one of the sculptures being auctioned off from this year’s event. It was made from the mold of a female model and welded together using scrap metal.

Take a guess how much it went for. How much would you pay for it? (Don’t forget it goes to a good cause.)

Want to know? You might be surprised. Watch and find out.

Here’s another view:

When you think of the future of flight, you probably think fast. But lately I’ve been noticing a trend in the opposite direction. It seems aircraft companies are thinking slow. The good news is they are turning to gases such as hydrogen and helium to make this happen.

The U.S. Army and Boeing both recently announced projects for aircrafts capable of hovering at a standstill for use with surveillance and communications. The Army paid half a billion dollars for the development of helium airships to hover unseen, miles above hostile area. From there, the unmanned vehicle can relay information to the military.

It could just be that air travel is cyclical, but airships appear to be making a comeback. However, these airships are definitely not for anyone who is in a hurry. An airship built by E-Green Technologies tops out at 80 mph (Watch the inflation of the airship). Their airship, at least, can support a 2,000 lb payload, but that only adds up to little more than a handful of people with small luggage.

Apart from a military contract here or there, is there really a future in airships? Sight-seeing might be a novel application. I imagine they might find their way into the Super Bowl and other sporting events—the surveillance capabilities can provide some good replay angles. The concept of a virtual floating billboard, at low altitudes, could be attractive to advertisers (Think souped-up Goodyear Blimp that can float for 4 days without landing). Among other “practical applications” listed on the E-Green Technologies website are “forest fire monitoring” and “agriculture assessments.” Is there anything I’m missing?

There are a few applications, but it’s still hard to see this catching on. Transportation is probably not a large market for airships. These days, people want to get around faster, not slower. But then again, half a billion dollars from the military will work wonders for the advancement of technology. It’s kind of like a slower, lower altitude space race. Although it would be fun to ride in an airship, do you think it’s worth the hefty investment?

We’re now about 79 days into the BP oil spill disaster in the gulf coast, and still no comprehensive solution has been developed to deal with the mess. The cleanup has gases and welding written all over it and many people are drawing on the industry for solutions. Ideas are pouring in, but is BP really listening?

An article in the Seattle Times reports that 120,000 ideas have been submitted to BP. Somewhere around 425 ideas in total have gone to testing. Most ideas, says Michael Cortez, a petroleum engineer at BP, are downright impossible or impractical.

The main task BP faces is cleaning up the oil that has spilled. The other large task is securing the leaking pipelines.

GAWDAwiki recently reported that GAWDA member WESCO is testing the use of carbon dioxide to make the oil easier to pick up. According to WESCO Executive Vice President Paul Dutruch, “Our goal is to make the cleanup easier. The easier it is, the faster things will return to normal.”

Welding & Gases Today reader Ray Stone expressed frustration at being stonewalled by BP and the Coast Guard when trying to put in his two cents. His idea is to “spray liquid nitrogen on the front edge of spill.” He added a request to pass the idea along to “people who care about cleanup, not their bottom lines.”

In a Walton Sun editorial, former physics professor Dr. Ernest Zebrowski suggests using liquid helium to temporarily halt the flow of leaking oil long enough to pump in conventional concrete plug. After waiting several weeks with no response, Zebrowski turned to the Sun in hopes of finding an open ear.

The echoing sentiment seems to be: let’s work together to get this thing cleaned up and not worry about making money. BP is understandably wary about signing any agreements, so maybe it should think about taking advantage of the goodwill out there.

Whether it’s welding booms and stopgap structures or using liquid nitrogen or CO2, there just might be an answer out there to tackle the disaster at hand. But for every innovative thinker, the question remains: who is listening?

Photo: avlxyz

While you’re grilling this Fourth of July weekend, here’s a little challenge for you to think about.

For the National SillsUSA Welding Fabrication Competition last week, students were presented with the task of welding a barbeque grill in 6.5 hours.

Students were provided with the following materials:

-Four 1/8” x 36” x 24” mild steel plates
-Two 1/8” x 24” x 24” mild steel plates
-Four Steel Hinges: 4.5” X 4.5”
-Two Caster Wheels Stationary 4″ X 4-1/2″
-Two Caster Wheels Swivel 4″ X 4-1/2″
-Three 1/8” x 1” x 1” 10 ft length angle irons
-One 1/4” x 48” x 24” expanded steel mesh

Welding equipment and consumables were also provided.

Students were required to complete 5 each SMAW, GMAW, GTAW, FCAW welds of at least 3” in length. Judging criteria included safety, welding skills, cutting skills, teamwork and fabrication accuracy. And believe it or not, after all that, students had to complete a written test as well.

The payoff was a half tuition scholarship to welding school worth more than $13,500. Not bad a for a few hours’ welding.

So savor those burgers and hot dogs this weekend, and just be glad you didn’t have to build the grill you’re using.

As you watch the world cup matches, I hope you are keeping an eye on the teams that used oxygen masks, chambers and tents in their preparations (See entry: Can Oxygen Spur World Cup Success?). The players are saying the altitude is negatively affecting their endurance, so the question is whether these preparations have made any difference. The big litmus test was England (oxygen user) vs. USA (non-oxygen user). At first glance, you might think the oxygen was a non-factor. If anything, England under-performed against the US squad. The 1-1 score line certainly suggests there was no difference.

Upon closer inspection, though, I would argue in favor of the oxygen. The US team started slow and England took advantage, scoring in the 4th minute! Using oxygen masks was all about adapting to the high altitude. Whether it was because of the thin air, the US certainly needed more time to get accustomed.

At the end of the game, England looked fresher than the US, who had several players dragging. The oxygen may have played a part in their conditioning, and there is little question that England was in better condition as a team.

The other two teams that made news with their use of oxygen chambers are Japan and Korea. And guess what? Both teams won their opening matches. Japan beat Cameroon 1-0, while the Korea Republic defeated Greece 2-0.

As the tournament wears on, I suspect the oxygen will have less impact as teams grow accustomed to the thin air. But for now, the damage is done. What could have been a dramatic win for the US is a satisfactory draw, leaving little margin for error. Will someone please send them some oxygen?

Friday marks the official start of the 2010 World Cup, and many of the 32 teams are using oxygen treatments to prepare for the competition. Fitness training is a major concern for teams, and this year’s Cup in South Africa presents a unique challenge for athletes. Seven of the ten stadiums that will host the Cup are at high altitudes, ranging from 2,165 feet in Nelspruit to 5,751 feet—more than a mile above sea level—in Johannesburg.

You might be thinking, “If the Denver Broncos could do it in Mile High Stadium, then surely soccer players can handle it.” Probably. And FIFA (the governing body for the World Cup) agrees, saying that the altitude will make no difference. So why did FIFA entertain a ban on high-altitude games last month?

In reality, soccer players run roughly 6-8 miles over the course of a single game, and that’s more than the Broncos can say. And at this level of competition, high performance athletes will do anything to gain an edge over their competitors. To get that edge, teams are turning to oxygen masks, tents, chambers and the like, all in hopes of better adjusting to the altitude.

Athletes commonly use higher-concentration oxygen treatments to help recover from injuries more quickly. Tiger Woods even has his own oxygen chamber. However, in this case, players aren’t after the healing effects of higher oxygen levels. Instead, the masks pump a lower concentration of oxygen to effectively deprive their bodies of air. This helps them adjust to the low oxygen levels in places like Johannesburg.

England’s players have used oxygen treatments while watching TV—you don’t want the light-headedness while you’re running hard. They even had oxygen tents flown to their already high-altitude training site in Austria. Japan, Korea and several other countries are likewise pulling out all the stops to help their players adjust.

The U.S. team, however, has taken the opposite approach. They are training at Princeton, a whopping 98 feet above sea level, with no thought for masks or chambers. Coach Bob Bradley insists that his team will actually have an advantage because Princeton’s normal oxygen levels will enable players to train harder and recover more quickly.

Are we making a mistake by not joining in the oxygen frenzy?

I guess we’ll find out. The U.S. team’s first match is against England—at 4,920 feet—on Saturday. It’s only uphill from there.