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Hill Country Steel Depends on Bobcat Reliability
- Bobcats run all-day, all week without fail
- Strong output enables one operator to Stick weld while another runs a grinder
- No voltage drop issues, even when running long leads; no nuisance trips
- LP option eliminate gasoline hazard for hospital project, cuts costs
Customer Testimonial
“Those Bobcats are normally running 10 hours a day, five to six days a week, with zero downtime. They're amazing little machines.”
— Marlo Brown, purchasing and field operations, Hill Country Steel
Application
Structural steel construction and fabrication.Key Business Issue
- Completing large projects with tight deadlines and remaining on schedule.
Challenges
- Equipment uptime, especially in the hot Texas sun.
- Simultaneously drawing on welding and generator power without tripping the unit's circuit breaker.
- Voltage drop when running long leads.
- Fuel hazards for urban work.
Previous System & Process
- Older gas welding generators with less welding and generator power and without fully-enclosed engines.
New Solutions
- The fully-enclosed Bobcat 250. This unit is especially designed for truck-mounted applications and now features 11,000 watts of Accu-Rated generator power and 250 amps of welding output at 100% duty cycle.
Results
- Nearly 100% welding generator uptime. "It can get up to 100 degrees down here with 100 percent humidity, and we haven't had any problems. Also, now that they're covered [the fully-enclosed Bobcat design], there's no airborne material or anything that can actually get in there and affect the machine. It's a much better design."
—Marlo Brown, purchasing and field operations, Hill Country Steel - Strong welding and generator power. "I actually have one guy cutting or running a grinder off the 115 V input power, and I've got another guy welding. The Bobcat is excellent for this job." The Bobcat 250 simultaneously produces 5,200 watts of 115V generator power and 125 amps of welding power.
— Marlo Brown, purchasing and field operations, Hill Country Steel - No nuisance trips. "When you trip a breaker, you have to climb down off the steel, come back to the machine and try to figure out what tripped. Then you have to wait for a little while, fire the machine back up and go back to work. It's a time-consuming affair, but it doesn't happen with the Bobcat."
— Marlo Brown, purchasing and field operations, Hill Country Steel - Easier service through removable service door located on the machine's side. "When we change the oil, we don't even take the machine off the truck. We maintain them, service them and change the oil right on the truck. It's much easier."
— Jessie Rico, supervisor, Hill Country Steel - Easier to run long leads. Long leads cause voltage drops, especially with grinders and other equipment that requires heavier loads. As long as Hill Country sizes the lead cable to match the job, the Bobcat 250 delivers all the power the company requires.
- LP option for Kohler engine. On a hospital project involving welding steel frames around 914 winders, there was no feasible way to safety refuel gasoline-power Bobcats, plus running leads up to 600-ft. long would have been "a labor nightmare."
To solve the problem, Hill Country invested in two LP-powered Bobcats. "Wherever we went in that massive building, we were able to take the Bobcats along with us. There were minimal fumes and the LP engines ran as quiet as the gas engines in the fully enclosed case. These Bobcats reduced labor costs as well. Before my guys would leave the shop in the morning, they would just load up some propane canisters. Without the flexibility of the LP option, that job would have eaten our lunch."
— Marlo Brown, purchasing and field operations, Hill Country Steel
