IIW History 1990-2015

the Danjang Kunshan Grand Bridge in China, opened in 2011, occupied a distance of 164.8 kilometres of road and rail including the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail line, officially being the longest bridge in the world. It is important to note that its construction consisted of around 450 000 tons of steel in its welded structure and without the facility to produce continuous welded track, high-speed rail travel would not have advanced to the stage as we know it today. Magnetic levitation as a technology has the means to take speeds of high- speed trains to well above the current levels of 300 km/hr, perhaps approaching 600-700 km/hr. Recently, a trial Japanese seven-car magnetic levitation train set the world record for a high-speed trainwith a speed of 600 km/hr in a short test run. 27 There is expectation that the rail journey from Tokyo to Nagoya (286 km) will take only 45 minutes at a speed of 500 km/hr with the commercial introduction of a Maglev train in 2027. Japan is hoping to sell its high-speed rail technology overseas as part of an attempt to revive the world’s third biggest economy through infrastructure exports. 28 For this, eventually, to happen the supporting structure and guide ways will require state-of-the-art welding technology to ensure the integrity and safety of high-speed trains using magnetic levitation principles are maintained. The heart of all progress is not just the major structures that stand out for all to see. It is the smaller, less visible world of nano- and micro-technology that ensures that the larger world can operate and fulfil its operational function. A failure of a small switch or circuit board can completely disrupt a whole railway system or power supply and cause significant economic loss and inconvenience. Welcome to the world of microjoining! The involvement of microjoining in the electronics, instrument, and actuator and sensor industries is as important and as extensive as that of welding in other manufacturing industries. 29 The proper functioning of small mechanical devices and electronic systems in the aerospace, medical, telecommunications, computer, automotive and oil and gas industries is critically dependent on the use of efficient and reliable microjoining techniques. The welding industry has responded to these challenges and IIW has remained actively involved in these activities through participation in Commission VII Microjoining and Nanojoining (C-VII) and the preceding Select Committees headed by Prof. Norman Zhou (Canada), a group with the goal to identify, develop and create best practices in microjoining and nanojoining techniques. Miniaturisation of medical devices and the use of implantable prosthetic materials in the human body have also increased markedly in recent years meaning that welding in such situations has had to keep up with human expectations. This has required special joining techniques such as ultrasonic and thermosonic welding

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