New name for magazine and website

[Bob at WeldingMag]

On January 1, Welding Design & Fabrication magazine is officially being renamed to Penton's Welding Magazine -- though we've already taken to just calling it Welding.

At about the same time, give or take a few days, our content website will be renamed WeldingMag.com.

None of this will directly affect WeldingWeb, which retains its name and overall use and appearance. You'll notice a logo change up top, but that's about it for now.

The name change is due, simply, to the passing of time. The magazine was founded in 1930 as "Here's How It's Welded" -- a name that lasted only a year, until it was changed to "Welding & Industry."

It's been Welding Design & Fabrication since 1959. At that time, the considerations of welding in a commercial environment were all about what happens under the gas bubble. It was about metallurgy and welding engineering. It wasn't about the weight of the weld; with oil prices low and supplies seemingly endless, it was easier to simply add horsepower to the end product than worrying about making a lighter weld.
And it wasn't about speed of the weld either; with little competition from the rest of the world, you didn't raise production capacity by raising productivity -- you raised it by adding workers and buying more equipment.

Today, all of that has (obviously) changed. A weld can be managed, monitored and mastered. It can be automated, measured, lightened and hastened with the technology available. In the business of welding, the primary challenge is how to do all of that profitably.

Today's challenges weren't accurately reflected in the old name, nor were today's readers. Over the past 2 years, our staff has quietly overhauled the magazine to reflect today's realities. The name change comes after the biggest part of that effort is complete.

As for WeldingWeb, we have a few housekeeping projects coming up. Over the next couple months, we will migrate this site to our own servers; we'll upgrade to the latest version of V-Bulletin -- the software that drives this site; and as soon as we finish negotiations with potential sponsors, we'll add the much-needed and requested safety forum.

In the mean time, have a Happy New Year from me, Dana, Sarah, Richard and the rest of us at WeldingWeb.com.

[zapster]

Happt new year staff!

Progress never sleeps..

...zap!