Visiting EPRI Innovators
Steve Mitnick is President of Lines Up, Inc., Editor-in-Chief of Public Utilities Fortnightly, author of “Lines Down: How We Pay, Use, Value Grid Electricity Amid the Storm.
Lori Burkhart is managing editor of Public Utilities Fortnightly.
You might feel like you were with PUF editors during a special tour of one of the world's top energy labs, at EPRI's sprawling campus in Charlotte.
PUF: Mitch, what is this machine?
Mitch Hargadine: This is a Liburdi Diametrics H head. It is a machine TIG process, so it is the TIG, Tungsten Inert Gas, welding process on a semi-automated programmable machine. You can set your travel disc through your travel rate, your oscillation, all the weld parameters that you would normally have. Essentially, you're taking the human element out of the welding process.
We've got the Gold Track VI over here, which is our welding power supply. That's the workhorse. That's where you enter all your data. The FireView sitting on top of it is essentially a vision system.