Robotic welding has entered the job shop market with gusto, and here's why.

What kind of a difference did an automated fabricating system make for Wood Stone Corp., Bellingham, Wash.? Before the system, the company actually had more people in the shop, and they were working 10 hour days for about 4-6 months to make fewer products than are produced today.

Manufacturing companies must walk a fine line between choosing a conveyor system suited for the application, while maintaining flexibility so the system can handle future jobs.

Few people are lucky enough to turn their hobbies and passions into a satisfying and lucrative career. Even fewer have the opportunity to create a lasting legacy of historical proportions. One individual working under a canopy at historic Jamestown is doing both. Bravo, Bob Williams.

Columnist Gerald Davis asks his fabricating readers if they know what it truly takes to keep up a fully functioning 3-D CAD software system.

Plasma cutting is one of the most efficient ways to cut sheet and heavy plate, but that efficiency can evaporate quickly without proper consumable maintenance.

Sculptor and fabricator Brett Richards of BR Sculpture, Chicago, got a contract to make a frame for an oval mirror—a length of square tubing bent to a perfect ellipse. Not knowing too much about the vagaries of bending tube, he figured he'd spend a few thousand dollars on a simple bender. After searching for months, he happened to see an elliptical shape made from square tubing in a vendor's booth at FABTECH.

Case New Holland needed a flexible robotic welding, one that could continually adapt to changing market demands.

Considering that raw data from the shop floor forms the basis for all production reports, companies need to eliminate possible shortfalls in collecting this data. That's where automatic data collection can help.

Roll forming is a matter of two processes: shaping material using localized deformation with a large amount of material movement (in other words, bending and moving the material). Localized deformation (bending) is a permanent bend with a slight thickness reduction at the bending line. Material movement is a matter of relocating or rotating a section, either formed or unformed, without changing its shape. Although roll forming engineers often address these processes at the same time, it can be helpful to consider forming and movement separately.