ProMotion Controls Inc. (www.promotioncontrols.com) has moved to a new, 6,500 sq. ft. fullservice customer support center in Medina, Ohio. The facility includes a larger office area than the previous location, a product training center, an interactive product demonstration area and warehouse space. ProMotion specializes in controllers and associated products for shape-cutting processes, including oxyfuel, plasma and waterjet.

Jackson Hole's Star-Tribune reports that Wyoming's CLIMB program has helped train single mothers in non-traditional jobs and close the wage gap. In Casper, 20 women received training in welding and seven in construction trades; in Gillette, 33 women received training as short-haul trucker; in Cheyenne 18 were trained on construction and allied trades. The average wages jumped from $7.08 on average per hour before training to $12.28 per hour after.

The American Welding Society (www.aws.org) will host a job fair at the combined Fabtech International and AWS Welding Show in Atlanta, Ga. The show runs from October 31 through November 2 at the Georgia World Conference Center.

The job fair will be held on November 2 between 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. in room C-206 at the conference center.

Participation in the job fair is available to show exhibitors, and to AWS sustaining and supporting company members.

Airgas Inc. (www.airgas.com) presented its annual Scott Melman Award to Herny B. (Rusty) Coker, president of Airgas Gulf States, for his leadership during the 2005 hurricanes.

Rusty made a difference when it mattered most with his leadership during last year's historic storms, said Airgas Chairman and Chief Executive, Peter McCausland.

Rusty was on the front lines, and was the lifeline for many during the first two weeks after Hurricane Katrina, says Shaun Powers, division president-East. Rusty showed up to help company associates and customers with supplies, money and lodging.

The Lincoln Electric Co. (www.lincolnelectric.com) introduced a two-year warranty program that extends its threeyear factory warranty to five years for its welding machines, wire feeders and plasma cutters. Customers who have purchased qualifying products in the past year can enroll in the program. The program covers parts and labor costs but not parts made by other manufacturers, such as engines and engine components and accessories, air compressors and batteries. Also, the warranty does not cover welding or cutting accessories, consumables, guns, torches or replacement parts.

The United States Marine Corps (www.usmc.mil) has welcomed 10 welders and a supervisor from Navy shipyards throughout the country to work on a temporary project at the Marine's logistics base in Albany, Ga.

The group must complete a weeklong certification process for the project before they can proceed to upgrade and install a ballistic protection package on 89 light armored vehicles, or LAVA2s. The Marines will ship the completed vehicles to Iraq.

The certification process began on August 21 and was handled by the Marine's Trades, Quality and Engineering Departments.

North American Technician Excellence Inc. (www.natex.org), an independent certification organization for technicians in the heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and refrigeration (HVAC/R) industry, named TurboTorch (www.thermadyne.com) a re-certification provider. TurboTorch provides air-fuel brazing and soldering products.

Technicians who participate in TurboTorch's safety, product and application class earn three hours of continuing education towards NATE re-certification requirements in the areas of installation and servicing of air conditioning and air-to-air heat pumps.

IGM Robotersysteme AG (www.igm.at), an Austrian welding robots manufacturer, plans to move all of its production to a plant in Gyor, Hungary, and to launch an FT400 million (approximately $1.846 million) development program at the facility. The company opened a new, 1,500 sq. meter assembly center in Gyor in 2002. It will use half of the development funds to double the production area of the Gyor facility. The other half of the funds will be used to develop new technology.

Robotersysteme's systems are used worldwide by manufacturers and builders of trucks, boilers, excavator and ships.

The Fraunhofer Center for Laser Technology (www.clt.fraunhofer.com) in Plymouth, Mich., plans to use the $1 million it will receive from the state's 21st Century Jobs Fund to develop small lasers that are used for such purposes as welding transmission parts, and for lighting in military airplanes and helicopters.

Fraunhofer, a Germany-based nonprofit group, expects the new technology to reduce the cost of buying lasers by as much as 30 percent.

The goal of Michigan's jobs program is to add more than 3,000 jobs in Michigan and loosen the state's dependence on the automotive industry by expanding its manufacturing base in such areas as alternative energy, homeland security, life sciences and hightech manufacturing.