"The first Sheet Metal Conference was held in October 1984 at the Dearborn Hyatt Regency Hotel. About two years prior, one of the Detroit Section Executive Board members (Dale U. Chang) suggested that our section promote the idea of a welding conference devoted to resistance welding.

A resistance welding conference was the interest in the Great Lakes area rather than arc welding. Based on national statistics, the welding in this area (which encompasses Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana and parts of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania) consists of 85% resistance welding and 15% arc welding, while nation-wide the figures are reversed.

Consequently, the resistance welding field was not very well represented in technical literature except in a few isolated instances. Dr. Chang felt that the Detroit section should champion a conference specifically aimed at improving the technical literature and knowledge in the resistance welding field." - taken from a History of the SMWC.