For AC-GTAW of Aluminum Alloys,... most of the significant advances focus on new ways to manipulate auto the AC wave form. These advances largely result from using inverter-based power sources, which allow a welder to extend the balance control, adjusting output frequency and independently controlling current heaters in each AC halt cycle. New inverter-based GTAW machines extend EN balance control, allowing duration from 50 to 90 percent. Making the EN portion of the cycle last longer:* Allows greater weld penetration* May permit increasing travel speeds by as much as 20 percent.* Narrows the weld bead* May permit using a smaller-diameter tungsten electrode to more precisely direct the heat or deposit a narrower weld bead

Buyers and equipment specialists for most of the larger chains do a commendable job of communicating their concerns and requirements, but what about the other 80 percent of the marketplace that doesn''t have a voice representing them?We all need to take responsibility communicating our needs to those manufacturing and selling the equipment we use. We need to be more vocal about our concerns with equipment that fails to live up to reasonable expectations. If you don''t come forward and advocate good equipment design, then you have no reason to complain either when equipment breaks down in your kitchen of when there is a lack of new solutions and better products coming to market. CHICAGO -- The North American Association of Food Equipment Manufacturers said it plans to shift the dates of its biennial equipment-and-supplies trade show from the fall to February.

I also was happy to see a new electronic balometer from Alnor. These devices, which read ceiling-mounted diffuser outputs in direct CFMs with no correction factors, are needed throughout the industry. However, they were usually very large, sensitive and expensive, so only the largest commercial shops had them, until now. Alnor just introduced its LoFlo balometer, a compact 10-500 CFM instrument designed specially for residential and light commercial applications.I took a minute to stop by some of the smoky denizens of the welding business. Uniweld Products has just come 12 up with a new oxy/acetylene torch tip they call the Tuning Fork (because that''s what it looks like). It is specifically designed for the removal and installation of reversing valves. Flames coming from both tip surfaces surround the three-connection side of the reversing valve, allowing the whole assembly to be unbrazed in a single operation.

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