The labor force of tomorrow needs to embrace manufacturing today if the industry is going to attract and keep the workers it needs in the future.

A robotic weldingsystem represents a significant capital investment for a job shop.

This study conducted at Hypertherm characterizes thermal and chemical changes in plasma-cut stainless steel and aluminum alloys and recommends process alternatives that may improve aesthetics and cut quality to improve forming and fabricating of the materials. The systems used were water-injection PAC, conventional dual-gas PAC, and high-precision PAC. It was learned that the heat-affected zone (HAZ) is small in plasma-cut pieces, HAZ varies with speed and power, faster cutting produces less HAZ, and more heat per square inch can produce less HAZ.