Autodarkening helmets do more than just protect welders from infrared and ultraviolet light the second the arc is struck. By allowing users to keep the helmet down over the face, the helmets help to prevent unnecessary neck strain, which can lead to long-term repetitive stress injury.

From its beginning in 1986 as a machine shop, Custom Tube Products has changed to a fabrication shop. Along the way it has adapted to the skilled worker shortage, mainly by trading in its manual processes for automation.

Sorting through the myriad quality programs and manufacturing trends—total quality management, Six Sigma, lean manufacturing—can be a daunting challenge. Knowing which strategies to use and how to use them can deliver big results in a copper tube production facility.

Tube traditionally is produced with a constant wall thickness, leaving design engineers stuck with designing tubular parts and unable to optimize them. A tube with variable wall thickness changes all that. This technology allows design engineers to specify the wall thickness in various areas of a tubular component—increasing the wall thickness in bend regions to prevent splitting and decreasing wall thickness elsewhere to reduce part weight.

In an effort to reduce the need for cleaning bent tube, fabricator R & B Wagner analyzed its operations and decided to change from manual lubricant application to an automated system. The result was that its lubricant consumption dropped 70 percent. So little lubricant was left on the bent parts that the company eliminated the cleaning step.