The 63rd General Assembly and International Conference of the International Institute of Welding was held recently in Istanbul under the main sponsorship of Turkish welding electrode producer Gedik Welding. The other sponsors of the event included Japanese welding machine manufacturer OTC, Austrian welding company Fronius, as well as GSI-SLV
Turkey, Cimtas, Gensa, HBI, Icdas, Borusan Mannesmann, Erciyas Boru, Gedik Yatırım, Yıldız Technical Univeristy and Istanbul Technical University.
In the event, which hosted over 900 attendees from leading international companies and academic bodies, 134 papers were presented from a total of 37 different countries.
Speaking at the conference, Turkish Minister of Industry and Trade Nihat Ergun said "A big country like
Turkey cannot be satisfied by just manufacturing and doing assembly work. We need to create our own designs, models and trademarks and move towards areas that generate high added-value in the industry."