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Skyline Steel Streamlines Architectural Steel Beam Fabrication
- Automated metal cored process achieves deposition rate of 18 lbs/hr., offers quality not possible with flux cored or sub arc processes.
- Reduced material handling, shop floor re-organization improves semi-automatic welding productivity, enhanced operator safety.
- Tight deadline met with zero defects.
Customer Testimonial
“We're producing at approximately double [the rate] of what we expected in our original survey when we were estimating this project. It's been very successful for us.”
— Rick Dancer, president, Skyline Steel
Application
Fabricating of architectural structural steel components for Phoenix, Arizona's new light rail system.
Key Business Issue
- Implement a high-quality, high-productivity welding system to successfully bid on a new contract.
Challenges
- Deliver 850 columns, involving approximately 8.5 miles of welding, in time to prevent construction delays.
- Attempts by the previous contractor, using the semi-automatic flux cored welding process, had failed quality tests.
- Creating a system that offered the productivity necessary to meet a tight deadline.
- Poor material flow, which increased cycle time.
Previous System & Process
- Semi-automatic flux cored welding and submerged arc welding.
New Solution
- Create an automated welding system consisting of a Miller Dimension™ 1000, a CC/CV DC power source, Hobart Brothers' 1/16-in. diameter Tri-Mark® Metalloy® 76 metal-cored wire, the distributor's proprietary gas blend and an automation and guidance system.
- Create pallet-mounted, mobile welding stations featuring Miller XMTs or Dimension 452 welders, boom-mounted 70 series wire feeders, drums of Tri-Mark wire and Bernard Q-Guns with Centerfire consumables.
- Re-organized materials flow, additional CNC fabricating equipment and material handling systems.
Results
- Deadline met. The automated welding system achieved deposition rates of 18 lbs./hr and travel speeds of 18 inches per minute, enabling Skyline Steel to meet the contractor's deadline.
- Zero reject rates. "The earlier fabricator failed because it was depending on the human factor. Fortunately, we were able to identify that this had to be an automated scenario so that we could control quality on a consistent level." Skyline Steel also achieved a zero defect rate on its semi-automatic welds, too.
— Rick Dancer, president, Skyline Steel - Forty-percent increase in overall shop productivity. "It's my job to turn hours into minutes. Our new system accomplishes just that by increasing productivity while greatly lowering labor costs."
— Dan Henry, shop foreman, Skyline Steel - Fabrication flexibility. With all semi-automatic fabrication components located on a skid, re-arranging welding cells to improve workflow only requires one minute with a fork truck.
- Reduced tripping hazards. Wheeled fixtures, skids, boom-mounted feeders, roller tables and bulk gas distribution systems have taken a large amount of equipment and clutter off of the shop floor and made it safer for workers to do their jobs.
- Excellent reliability. Miller rates the output of its welders at 104 degree F. Even when the temperature soars—a common occurrence in Phoenix—Skyline Steel can be assured of a consistent weld output.
