Italian Institute of Welding - New Partner of ASU

A report concerning the recent visit of Astrakhan State University’s delegation to the Italian Institute of Welding has recently been given at a meeting of ASU’s Deans and Heads of Chairs. The delegation was headed by Dr. Nikolay Vybornov, Dean of our Department of Physics & Technology; a number of faculty staff members of our Chair of Material Science & Welding Technology became the delegation members.

Since 2006, the Basic Chair of Welding Technology has been operating at the Department of Physics & Technology; it interacts with the Krasnye Barrikady Shipbuilding Plant. To introduce new technologies into welding processes in Astrakhan Region, our specialists need to go abroad regularly. The delegation that has recently been to Genoa, an apex of Italy’s industrial triangle, has included not only our faculty staff, but also staff of the Krasnye Barrikady Plant and staff of the Astrakhan Polytechnic College, which trains future welders and with which ASU has long-lasting partnership relations. According to Dr. Vybornov, this trip has enhanced interaction between our University and the Krasnye Barrikady Plant significantly.

The specialists from Astrakhan set themselves clear goals: to learn advanced welding technologies - laser welding, plasma welding, and friction welding with mixing; to study the most modern techniques of weld joints control; to tackle essential issues in the field of robot welding. It was especially important to form tight academic links with our EU partners.

The trip lasted 10 days. “Our meetings with Italian professors, which were formally named lectures, were actually difficult to perceive in the literal meaning of this word - the Italian academic process is so much practice-oriented”, Dr. Vybornov confesses. “Of course, that’s not just a university - that’s also a research center and a quality control center. We’re admired with a close interaction between the theory and the practice: after listening to a lecture, their students go to labs right at once and test the knowledge they just got. We’ll try to achieve such a high level of teaching.

Can one get such experience in Russia? According to Dr. Vybornov, many Russian specialists, unfortunately, still do not meet the level of foreign experts; they do not know all the welding technologies. By the way, the Astrakhan delegates were amazed to see a large number of alternative energy sources in Genoa.

By the end of the visit, the two parties have negotiated on the key issues; the proper preparation work is now done at ASU. The Vice President of the Italian Institute of Welding will visit Astrakhan State University this autumn. The Italian expert will give master classes to our students, who will have to learn the professional terms in English before their practical training. Our 2015 plans include researches in the field of spraying to be undertaken jointly by our Italian colleagues and by our postgraduate students. That will be the first steps of our long-term partnership.

Astrakhan Region has revealed broad opportunities to borrow Italian experience. “Genoa is Italy’s largest seaport with a well-developed shipbuilding industry; they build both large and small vessels. Astrakhan, too, has many shipbuilding companies, but they deal with small vessels, yachts, and boats. As for large ships, we buy them in other Russian and foreign cities, so they are too expensive to buy. We’d like to launch mutually profitable cooperation in this cluster as well”, Dr. Vybornov reflects.

Staff of our Department of Physics & Technology is planning to cover several other practical trainings, which will certainly help them get new knowledge and improve their professional skills.

Russian original information source: N.I. Kirillova (the Innovative Laboratory of Information Linguistics of ASU)

Russian original photo source: N.A. Vybornov