Page 27 - MetalForming Magazine September 2022

FABRICATION
While AvanTech bought the waterjet cutting machine primarily to cut pressure-vessel and container plate and domed heads, it also equipped the machine with a rotary axis, useful for cutting and drilling holes in tube and pipe.
Waterjet
Cutting
the Missing
Productivity-
Puzzle Piece
From its 122,000-sq.-ft. plant in Columbia, SC, AvanTech fabricates containers, pressure vessels, dewatering systems and more, primarily for nuclear-power facilities and for the U.S. Dept. of Energy. A new waterjet cutting machine is the last piece of equipment on its shopping list in order to fully fabricate inhouse.
BY BRAD F. KUVIN, EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
When an OEM—or any manu- overcome. This is especially true when power industry with water-treatment
considering the added lead time built into outsourcing fabrication/pre-fab- rication processes, and the lost flexi- bility in production scheduling that can hamstring a manufacturer trying to react to rapidly evolving customer needs.
Such was the case at wastewater- treatment-system manufacturer Avan- Tech, with inhouse engineering and project-management teams loaded with expertise in solid- and liquid- waste and water-treatment systems. Those teams now are buoyed by a sub- stantive team of skilled tradespeople with expertise in every facet of fabri- cation, including forming and welding.
“We primarily serve the nuclear-
facturer really—outsources
metal fabrication to vendor partners, its quality-control depart- ment must inspect incoming fabricated parts and assemblies, compare the receivable goods to the purchase order, review material-traceability reports, and ensure that the goods meet quality standards (internal and those of the end customer). While certain advan- tages certainly can be gained by out- sourcing work to companies special- izing in certain forming and fabrication processes, compared to trying to devel- op core competencies in every process, the time and labor consumed in out- sourcing the work and then verifying incoming quality can be difficult to
technology,” pre-fabrication manager Harrison Coleman tells MetalForming, “to help keep nuclear power a safe, reliable and cost-effective source of electricity. Our manufacturing advan- tage as a supplier helps to reduce costs to the industry. We fabricate 99 percent of our products inhouse—most recent- ly cutting out the middleman or sub- suppliers with the debut of a new waterjet cutting machine.”
A Real Workhorse
From its 122,000-sq.-ft. headquar- ters manufacturing facility in Colum- bia, SC, the firm fabricates an array of containers, pressure vessels, dewater- ing systems, skids, lifting devices,
24 MetalForming/September 2022
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