AOTS, Japan (Association for Overseas Technical Cooperation and Sustainable Partnerships) and Confederation of Indian Industry, India (CII) organised a Technical Seminar and Workshop on high- precision arc welding technology at Chennai on 22-23 Aug 2018. The seminar was organised at Hotel ITC Grand Chola, Chennai and the workshop was conducted at Advanced Training Institute (ATI), Chennai on both the days. This training program at Chennai was funded by Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry, Japan (METI). There are 2 more such METI supported training programs scheduled in this year –one at Ahmedabad (23-24 Oct) and another at Jamshedpur (13-14 Dec). Panasonic Welding Systems was an Industry Partner by providing lecture and practical demonstration on latest welding equipment and robot technology to improve productivity of Indian metal fabrication industry. Other industry partners were Kobelco welding, Japan (welding consumables) and Iwatani Corporation, Japan (shielding gas).

The seminar served as an opportunity to promote welding technology which remains the most critical for industrial sectors required to assure long-term reliability across applications such as fabrication of building, bridges, process plant equipment, manufacturing of automobiles, railways, ships etc.

Some of the key dignitaries present at the occasion were (Chief Guest) Kojiro Uchiyama (Consul-General of Japan in Chennai), S. Chandramohan (Vice Chairman-CII Tamil Nadu State and Group President and CFO, TAFE Ltd), Hisashi Kanda (General Manager, AOTS-India), Sivanesan R (Sr. V.P., Quality, Sourcing and Supply chain, Ashok Leyland Ltd), Anand Swaroop (Chief Mechanical Engineer-Planning , Integral Coach Factory-Chennai), Masafumi Himeno (Divisional Director-SFS Division, Panasonic India Pvt Ltd) and R. Senthil Kumar (Director, Advanced Training Institute, Chennai) .The seminar served as a platform to promote Japan’s latest high-precision welding technology into India. The eminent faculty included Prof. Kazuhiro Ito (Joining and Welding Research Institute –JWRI, Osaka University, Japan) who delivered valuable lecture on “New approaches in arc welding technology and trends: Design for improving fatigue properties or Improving a penetration shape using work piece-vibration in twin-wire MAG welding” Masaharu Sato, (Japan Welding Engineering Society-JWES ,Japan), who covered topics on “Importance of International Standards on welding quality control and qualification of welders”. With an aim to support ‘Make in India’ vision, this initiative is expected to foster the growth of personnel engaged in the manufacturing sector, welders and welding technologists in particular.

Expressing his views on the occasion, Kojiro Uchiyama referred to Japanese Prime Minister Abe’s visit to India on 13-15 Sept 2017 and re-iterated Japan’s strong support for initiatives such as “Make in India”, “Digital India”, “Skill India”” and “Start-up India”. He also said “Strong India benefits Japan and Strong Japan benefits India”. Japan has already started taking significant measures to improve the human resource in India and we shall continue to support such kind of initiatives in India.”

Hisashi Kanda, AOTS, India stated “This initiative of METI supports the government’s vision of raising India’s share of GDP in manufacturing from an existing 16 to 25 per cent by the year 2022. Stressing the need for advanced technology infusion along with skill development he added “Application of advanced intelligent welding machines which synergise with the skill of welders to achieve superior quality welds with higher productivity as being the next big thing of the future for Indian industry”.

Chandra Mohan informed that Japanese technology is an ideal example of best manufacturing practice giving world “zero defect” principle. He also said that “Welding” is most important event in one’s life and “Welding” is most important event in metal working technology and both must be handled with care.

Masafumi Himeno said that Chennai is the hub of welding expertise and they are more than willing and equipped to adopt latest technology in welding to produce goods of international standard.

The technical workshop and seminar is attended by more than 200 nos. of participants from leading companies like Ashok Leyland, India Metal One Steel Plate Processing Pvt Ltd, Tata Hitachi, Brakes India, Caterpillar, Komatsu, Daimler, Katsushiro Matax, etc. to name a few and institutes like Don Bosco, ATI, Integral Coach Factory (AWTI) and WRI, Trichy.