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Big Blue 500 Gouges and Welds for One Month Straight
- FEMCO depends on equipment uptime to complete repair jobs faster
- Typical job involves gouging with 400 to 500 lbs. of 1/2-in. carbons
- Welding repair runs non-stop until complete, often using 900 lbs. of flux cored wire
- Big Blue's three-phase power runs portable milling machines
Customer Testimonial
“Uptime is important to our customers, which is why we choose Miller's Big Blue engine drives. They run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. On one job, the welders ran for a month. We only shut them down to put fuel in them and check the oil and fired them right back up.”
— Ray Pierce, assistant field service manager, FEMCO Machine Company
Application
Machining, welding and rebuilding heavy equipment for aggregate, mining, crane and scrap applications.
Key Business Issue
- Completing repair projects as quickly as possible so FEMCO's customers can minimize lost processing time.
Challenge
- Finding reliable engine-driven welding generators that can withstand non-stop use for days on end.
- Finding engine drives with three-phase power.
Previous System & Process
- Smaller generators with single-phase power, which were adapted with an "add-a-phase" unit to create three-phase power.
- Combining engine-driven welders with stand-alone generators.
New Solution
- Miller's Big Blue 500 CC/CV "deluxe model" engine drive, which features an optional 20,000 watts of three-phase power (and 12,000 watts of single phase power).
Results
- Faster carbon arc gouging. "We want to drop down an inch-and-a-half and cut as fast as we can go. The faster we gouge, the sooner we can repair the crack. The Big Blue 500 works very well with 1/2-in. carbons. It can drop down and take the deep cut we need to remove steel quickly."
— Ray Pierce, assistant field service manager, FEMCO - Non-stop reliability. Because FEMCO must maintain pre-heat temperature, operators will weld 24 hours a day, seven days a week until completing the job. "[Scrap yard] shear repair places an extensive amount of stress on our Big Blues, especially the gouging because it creates a lot of heat. However, as much as we've pounded the daylights out them, I don't think we've ever blown an engine up in our life."
—Terry Clark, field service manager, FEMCO - Stronger generator power. Most of FEMCO's field work doesn't allow them the luxury of working in a shop with easy access to power, so the company relies on the Big Blue 500 single-and three-phase generator power to run grinders, line-boring machines, magnetic drills and portable mills.
- Equipment consolidation. Miller originally developed Big Blue engine drives with three-phase power to meet FEMCO's needs. "We [worked] in remote locations where you couldn't get three-phase power, and that was a problem because portable milling machines require three-phase power. We bought a generator-only unit to produce three-phase power, but that wasn't very convenient."
— Jerry McAdoo, now a sales and technical support specialist, FEMCO
