From left to right: Christian Rothbauer, Detlef Ulbrich, Markus Holthaus, Klaus Middeldorf, Xie Yinglong Xie, Christian Ahrens, Wang Lin and Chen Yu.
Report of a meeting on 8 / 9th August 2014 in Harbin
GSI Participants: Mr. Klaus Middeldorf, Managing Director GSI, Christian Ahrens, Vice President and abroad coordinator GSI, Markus Holthaus, Head of Materials and Processes SLV Duisburg and Christian Rothbauer, Head of Quality Assurance SLV Duisburg. As a guest of the GSI, Mr. Detlef Ulbrich by the German Institute for Building Technology was also at the event. Main interlocutors of WTI were: Men Yinglong Xie, director WTI, Wang Lin, Head of Education and Training WTI and Chen Yu, Head of Quality Assurance WTI - and other employees of the WTI. As a guest of the WTI Mr. Dongguang participated Park from Harbin Welding Institute and the Chinese Committee for Welding Standardization. The center of the event was an international forum "Sino-German Cooperation and International Welding Personnel Training", about 100 employees of the WTI attended as gest. The event has found locally high attention, a representative of the municipality and city of Harbin City Parliament took part in the event, among all other things was also a local television station reporting.
Xie reported in the introduction on the development of cooperation in the past decades and calls personalities that have shaped this cooperation. Main fields of cooperation were in the training and testing of welders as well as in the auditing and certification of enterprises according to European and international standards, particularly in the field of metal and rail vehicles. Middeldorf expanded this report to developments arising from the growing in China automation of welding processes, he explained to the economic importance of automation in the context of the numbers used in robotic systems in China. The market for welding products and services - not only in automation but also continue in the welding machines and the additional materials - will grow in China in the coming years, so are good opportunities for further joint WTI / GSI - initiatives given here can be involved increasingly fields of labor and environmental protection.
Holthaus reports on developments in laser technology, he shall before figures on the global market of laser systems and explains a number of examples of application of laser technology in industrial manufacturing and crafts, Holthaus refers particularly to the boundary conditions in laser material processing. Holthaus describes these developments, another future area of ??cooperation GSI and WTI, this may the training of operators consisting of laser specialists and laser safety specialists as well as advice in the form of feasibility studies and automation concepts and studying the process and testing of laser welded components. Special attention will find applications of the so-called additive manufacturing techniques such as selective laser melting. As a symbol for a field of further cooperation between GSI and WTI Holthaus presented the model of a robot that was made ??by selective laser melting. As a gift of GSI also an invitation for an employee of WTI will be handed over to training in mechanized and automated Schutzugasschweißprozessen in the SLV Duisburg in this context. The theme of automation in welding technology should be continued intensively with representatives of Harbin Welding Insitutes.
The deputy director of the Harbin Welding Institute Dongguang Mr. Park explained within the framework of the international forum the current standardization strategy in welding technology.
Chen then describes the status of the common GSI and WTI work in the areas of auditing and certification of enterprises according to the European regulations EN 1090 and EN 15085, is also described the cooperation between GSI, WTI and the DVS Cert GmbH in the certification of Chinese enterprises.
Rothbauer subsequently reported on regulations of the European Construction Products Directive and the deviations from these regulations, which are possible in special cases, when deviating from the norm a technical assessment (ETA) is made. An application of such a technical review is the approval of components made ??of structural steels according to Chinese standards in manufacturing facilities by European companies in China.
In additional conversations continued cooperation between GSI and WTI was deepened, a major issue here is the further joint implementation of welder qualification tests according to the international standard ISO 9606-1. Overall, the more co-GSI and WTI is to be carried out in a joint venture, this is the establishment of a joint venture named Beijing GSI WTI Welding Application Technology Development Co. Ltd. planned. A key task of this joint venture is the public relations for the welding technology and the marketing of products and services offered by GSI and WTI in China.
Next meeting with representatives of WTI a joint colloquium on October 16, 2014 is planned in the SLV Duisburg.