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Improved Welding at a Structural Steel Fabricator

Our Case Studies

Read more about how we Improved Welding at a Structural Steel Fabricator below! 

History

A structural steel fabricator was supplied by a competitor. Our sales rep had access to management but they were satisfied with their current supplier. At some point, the customer purchased three (3) robotic solutions and they were struggling for support. For whatever reason, the incumbent supplier would not or could not help them. Our sales rep gained permission to bring in one of our productivity specialists to perform a study of weld output on the automated solutions.

Data Gathering

During our shop tour, we uncovered that the shop had thirty (30) manual welders along with the three (3) automated weld cells. It became apparent to us that the bulk of the work and the shop bottleneck was surrounding a particular automated weld cell. This specific cell welded circumferential end caps on square tubing of all types of thicknesses and sizes.

Weld Details

  • 0.035” diameter wire
  • C-15 gas
  • Resulting weld had a very rounded bead profile that had to be ground flat
  • Fairly low deposition rate required many passes on heavier plate
  • Using spooled wire in large quantities

Analysis

We determined that four (4) things could help the manufacturer:

  1. Deposition increase
  2. Bead profile correction
  3. Reduced passes
  4. Bulk wire packs

We knew that the first three topics could be solved with a wire and gas change. Solution #4 was corrected easily. The customer allowed us to do a weld test on the problem robotic cell.

Test Details

  • 0.045” diameter wire from a higher quality wire manufacturer
  • Changed gas to AR/CO2/HE mix
  • Two passes
    • 1st pass was tight arc spray
    • Second pass had larger arc length to fill groove with flatter bead

Proposal

Our proposal showed the General Manager a welded part with an extremely low bead profile. The Plant Manager confirmed to the GM that the grinding on the part was dramatically reduced. He also confirmed that we were able to fill grooves on all materials 5/8” and less in two passes. We then demonstrated the calculated savings in relation to the increased weld deposition. Next we showed examples of how we could switch their robotic cells from spooled wire to bulk packs with the resulting labor savings. In return we asked for their business.

Results

The GM became our internal champion. He brought our proposal to the business partners who owned the company and advised them to move forward with our offering. We gained all business related to welding including implementing the gas change on 2 of the 3 robots. As predicted, the customer enjoyed the reduced passes per weld and drastically reduced grind time. We developed a great relationship with the customer who now averages $600K annually. In subsequent years and upon our recommendations the customer purchased a beam line, a 5-axis cutting table and an automated grinding solution over the next 5 years.