Page 28 - MetalForming November 2015

Robotic Welding
Robotic Welding to the Rescue
Variety is the spice of life, they say. For manufacturers, variety, be it in product mix, markets served or processes employed, can be the ticket to avoiding volatile econom- ic ups and downs while adding flexi- bility to take on all types of work. Near Nashville, TN, Quality Industries is all about variety. Founded in 1972, the family-owned company has grown to be one of the largest and most diverse independent metalforming and fabri- cating manufacturers in the United States. With the addition this fall of a 60,000-sq.-ft. facility in Denton, TX, Quality Industries and its 500-plus employees will use more than 330,000 sq. ft. of manufacturing space to serve industries including heavy transporta- tion, alternative energy, electrical
BY LOUIS A. KREN, SENIOR EDITOR
enclosures, and towing and recovery equipment.
Under roof are 5,000-W laser-cutting machines, manual and robotic welding cells, CNC punch presses, press brakes, stamping presses, integrated assem- bly and metal-finishing cells, and pow- der-coating and wet-paint lines. Back- ing it all up, Quality Industries’ engineering team works closely with customers to refine and improve designs, identify proper, efficient processes, and minimize production costs.
Scarcity of Welders Spurs Technology Investment
Such a complex and diverse opera- tion demands efficiencies anywhere and everywhere to stay successful.
26 MetalForming/November 2015
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Quality Industries combats a Nashville-area welding shortage with automation to tackle high- and low-volume work.
Recently, Quality Industries put its welding operations under the micro- scope—with human welders scarce, the company has sought to automate where it could.
“Welding is an in-demand skill set, and like most manufacturers in this area, we struggle to attain the needed number of welders with the right skill set,” explains Chris Fann, senior vice president of operations, noting that 80 percent of Quality Industries’ welding involves aluminum, with carbon and stainless steels comprising the balance. “We must be able to supplement our labor pool. We have a good set of peo- ple that can program and maintain robots, but people who can strike an arc and gas-tungsten-arc-weld (GTAW ) aluminum are a scarce resource in this region.”
At Quality Industries, welding finds its most intensive use in fabrication of aluminum boxes for heavy-duty wreck- ers—tow trucks for large vehicles. Twenty human welders primarily GTA weld these boxes. MetalForming wit- nessed this operation during a recent