This week in metalworking: December 2 - December 6

Hello again.  Here’s our round-up of all the stories making news this week in the world of metalworking.

Also, if you want to keep up to date with all the other metalworking news we’ve got going on, you can follow us on Twitter @CdnMetalworking, like us on Facebook, or find us on Google+ or our LinkedIn page. Thanks for reading! 

Now to the stories. Check back every week to see what’s piqued our interest… or left us scratching our head:

German tool and mold making sector expected to rebound in the coming year. [ETMM-Online]

At the same time we're being told machine tool orders are down in Germany for October. [Expatica]

Boeing establishing a new aerospace centre in the Middle East. [Boeing]

The auto industry - thriving everywhere, according to Scotiabank. [Canadian Manufacturing]

Also from our friends at Canadian Manufacturing, GM will be pulling the Chevrolet brand out of Europe as it continues to struggle over there. [Canadian Manufacturing]

Interesting story about how aluminum is becoming more prevalent in cars and body shops are going to have make changes to prepare for the increased amount of aluminum work. [Auto News]

Great news for welding out on the east coast of Canada. The Atlantic Welding Technology Centre will be soon be established in Bathurst, New Brunswick. There will be $2.6 million invested in the project. [Daily Business Buzz]

The federal government will be investing $530 million in business development initiatives in southern Ontario. [Canadian Manufacturing]

Austrian welding company Fronius is launching a welding app for smart phones. These guys made some waves with some cool new products and a flashy booth at FABTECH this year, so they might be a company to watch for. [The Engineer.co.uk] Speaking of Fronius, here's a look at their new battery-powered welding units for ship building [Motorship]

China is furiously trying to keep pace with the U.S. in the 3D printing race. It will be interesting to watch this play out, as China is now a more legitimate player in the game at this stage of history. [USA Today]

Japan is hoping the emergence of 3D printing will snap it's economy out of it's prolonged malaise. [Reuters Canada]

An in-depth look at the origins of 3D printing, and some of the significant moments in history for the burgeoning technology (it even includes patents!) [Nanowerk]

And ummm... apparently GE has designated December 3rd as the official "3D printing day". Why not, I guess? [Ad Age]

Video of the week:

This video is highly impressive, incredibly cool, and slightly disconcerting all at once (And there's plenty of shots of metalworking to boot!).

It shows a project by Shell to build the Prelude the largest ship in the world, that will be used as an off shore liquid natural gas refinery. It's anchored to the seabed, where it also siphons out the gas, and then refines it onboard before smaller ships ferry it to shore. The ship will be sucking up the goods buried under the sea floor just north of the Kimberley region in Australia (near where I once lived and worked in Broome, WA). This area is often battered by cyclones in the rainy season, but apparently the ship can withstand Category 5 storms and 20 metre swells in the ocean.

I've seen enough oil & gas malfunctions (does BP off the gulf ring a bell?) to treat these assurances with a healthy dose of skepticism - but this still a very interesting project. Let's just hope the Shell exec saying, "If we fail - which we will not - then yes, your reputation is at stake," doesn't become their "Titanic" moment.

If you missed the last edition of the metalworking round-up you can find it here: This week in metalworking: November 11 – November 15