Dr. AR Sihag, Secretary/ Dept. of Heavy Industry, Govt. of India inaugurated the product launch of Centre of Excellence in Welding, at PSG College of Technology Coimbatore recently. This welding project is funded by Government of India along with industrial partners to develop welding automation, power source and consumables products.
The ten products developed by the center was launched by Dr. AR Sihag recently in a function organized at PSG Tech Coimbatore. The function was attended by more than 100 industry participants representing ELGI, LMW, TVS motors, PRICOL, ROOTS etc., including representatives from CODDISIA, SIEMA, CII, IWS, ISNT & other professional bodies. The launch function was followed by a seminar where invited speakers from WRI, MOU partners of CoEW and other experts in welding.
Welding technology is a precise, cost effective, reliable and high tech. method for joining of materials for manufacturing industry. While India has become number two in the production of steel ( 120 million tonnes in the world, welding needs 3 % of the steel for production of welding consumables for various sectors such as infrastructure, railways, power, etc and need about 10000 welding engineers per annum based on quantum of joining of steel per annum for fabrication industry. Today the welding industry constitute both welding equipment and consumables and its share worth about Rs 4000 crores per annum. India is importing welding equipment (70 %) and welding consumables50%) even today from Europe, USA and China.
To fill the gap in the fabrication industry, Department of Heavy industry, Govt. of India, initiated to create a Centre of Excellence in Welding Engineering and Technology (COEWT) at PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore on 2016 along with industry partners such as Effica automation, Enarka, Seven Arcs Omega electrodes, etc. The center also offers consultancy to many SMEs on welding automation and welding technology. The center conducts regular training and skill development programs in the field of welding and allied areas.