3 FABTECH Takeaways from Davies Molding

Luckily Davies Molding is close to Chicago, so I get to take a few hours out of my work day to go down to manufacturing shows at McCormick Place and check out some cool new stuff in manufacturing.  On Thursday I visited FABTECH to see what’s new in the welding and fabrication world.  Here are my 3 takeaways from the event:

1. Lincoln Electric’s Welding Simulator.  Except for a few embarrassing minutes of trying to figure out how to put the welding helmut/mask on, I thoroughly enjoyed my hand at welding in the simulater truck from Lincoln Electric.  I was thrilled when the instructor told me my score- 65 and commented “not bad for a beginner”.  Here’s the video link: http://youtu.be/AVjgm5v25Lk  
2. Cool new Davies Molding plastic knobs on welding machines.  They’re soft touch overmold knurled control knobs and they look great on these machines, don’t they?
3. Terrific Tradeshow Swag. Thanks to generous vendors, I came back to the office with a bag of goodies, from “Keep it made in America” key chains to nifty tote bags for my coworkers. But my prize “swag” from the show was a metal hanger from Swagelok -2 pieces of the hanger was welded together at its booth in a demo. That one I gave to my boss, of course.