Recently, the Guangdong Provincial Welder Vocational Skills Competition, hosted by the Guangdong Manufacturing Industry Association and co-organized by the Zhuhai Manufacturing Industry Association, CNOOC Fulu Heavy Industries Co., Ltd., Zhuhai Gree Electric Appliances Co., Ltd., and Zhuhai Technician College, was held in full swing at the CNOOC Engineering Zhuhai Deepwater Equipment Manufacturing Base. More than 70 “welding masters” from across the province showcased their unique skills of “tailoring” steel amidst flying welding sparks and flickering arc lights.
As an authoritative provincial-level competition in the welding field, this year’s event attracted 35 teams from Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Foshan, Zhuhai, Yangjiang, Zhanjiang, Zhongshan, Huizhou and other cities. The scale of participating enterprises and competitors hit a new high in the competition’s history, with over 70 contestants advancing to the final round. They come from more than 10 industries including power engineering, nuclear power, marine engineering equipment, shipbuilding, aviation and railway, bridge construction, intelligent manufacturing, and metal structures, fully demonstrating Guangdong Province’s strong reserve of welding skilled talents.
Adhering to the purpose of “Skills Light Up the Future, Talents Empower the Industry”, the competition adopted a comprehensive competition system combining “theory and practical operation”. Contestants first took the national vocational skill technician-level theoretical exam, and then successively competed in three core practical projects: shielded metal arc welding, gas metal arc welding, and pressure vessel combined welding, featuring high technical integration and strict standards. Taking pressure vessel combined welding as an example alone, it integrates three processes: shielded metal arc welding, gas metal arc welding, and gas tungsten arc welding, involving difficult problems such as welding dissimilar materials of carbon steel pipes and 304 stainless steel plates. The welded vessels also need to pass a strict 2.0 MPa pressure test.
At the competition site, with welding sparks flying and arc lights flashing, contestants precisely adjusted parameters and carefully handled every weld, demonstrating solid technical foundations and superb practical operation capabilities.
The referee team brought together senior experts from the China Engineering Construction Welding Association, Hong Kong Applied Welding Association, CNOOC Fulu Heavy Industries and other institutions, ensuring the objectivity, fairness, impartiality and transparency of the evaluation mechanismically.
After fierce competition, the competition finally selected the first, second, third and excellence awards for the overall results, and commended the top six in the theoretical assessment and each practical operation project.
This competition is not only a centralized inspection of the welding skills of welders across the province, but also a vivid display of the achievements in high-skilled talent training. From the perspective of industrial development, the event closely aligns with the needs of Guangdong’s manufacturing transformation and upgrading and high-end field development, striving to discover and cultivate welding backbones suitable for key industries such as marine engineering equipment and nuclear power engineering, injecting solid “skill momentum” into the high-quality development of the industry.
