From the time I was a small child I was fascinated by automation. I remember seeing filmed images of thousands of bottles being serially, automatically and rapidly filled at soft drink bottling plants. In grade school we were shown a movie about interchangeable parts and automated production lines, with '50s and '60s vintage cars being assembled in unbelievably short times.

During a school trip to a dairy farm, I marveled at how milk cows were escorted onto a carousel, hooked up to a milking machine, and then, drained of their milk, escorted off after a full revolution. For a wide-eyed young kid, these were incredible things to see. And do you know what? They still are.

During my career in manufacturing, I have been privileged to see many more examples of industrial automation at work.

Yes, I'm still fascinated by them, but it wasn't until I started covering the welding and fabricating industry that I gained a more complete understanding of automation's impact and its implications to the global economy. The use of a robotic arm to pick and place work pieces by now seems like ancient history, as do the robots on an auto assembly lines spot welding body panels. But the integration of a robotic arm with an arc welder was the masterstroke that secured the future of automation in fabricating shops.

The advent of automated arc welding has yielded faster, more accurate and repeatable production on complex parts in three dimensions. At a time when skilled welders are becoming a premium human resource, automated welding has helped alleviate this scarcity. Automation has helped to more accurately define the cost structure of the welding process, with precisely predictable arc-on time and consumables expense to fabricate a complex part.

As if all this wasn't impressive enough, the integration of robotic and arc welding machinery keeps improving. The relationship between a robot's footprint and the size of the arm's working envelope is only limited by safety and mechanical considerations. Recent systems are more flexible, minimizing the need for dedicated fixturing and making automated welding financially viable for shorter production runs. The advent of new software and the improved connectivity between an automated system's components has made their control much more efficient and subject to real time monitoring.

Chris Bailey, general manager of The Lincoln Electric Company's Automation Division, offers a great metaphor about the state-of-the-art of welding automation. "Consider the old DOS operating system for PCs and how it compares to using Microsoft's Windows today," he says. "This same type of growing sophistication characterizes the effectiveness of automation and welding process integration."

During this time of global competitive challenges to the American (and North American) manufacturing sector, staying at the forefront of automation technologies boosts productivity. This, in turn, helps us maintain our competitive presence on the global manufacturing stage.