Content tagged with "productivity"
Results: 28
Article
January 15, 2009
Keeping welding costs from spiraling out of control
Figure 1
Skyline Steel’s Cartersville, Ga.-based facility has been making spiral pipe with the same mill equipment that was originally installed in 1992.
The large-diameter pipe used for the transmission of gas and oil traditionally has been made using either the longitudinal or... Read more...
Article
February 12, 2008
Welding more with less
Orbital welding systems complete multiple passes in a continuous arc without variations or mistakes, providing a consistent weld. Oil and gas is one of the key industries requiring extensive pipe welding—transmission and production activity in the industry is forecast to increase this... Read more...
Article
January 15, 2008
2 strategies for optimizing bending operations
Offline bending software expedites the bending process. Metal fabricators must continuously seek new ways to maximize their uptime and improve their staff utilization to combat the skilled worker shortage. Fabricators typically encounter bottlenecks during setup and production in their press... Read more...
Article
December 11, 2007
Maximizing your shop floor automation investment
When manufacturing companies invest hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars in shop floor automation, they need to have their machines run at full or near-full capacity to achieve a quick return on investment. In long-run production environments or in job shops, justifying the purchase... Read more...
Article
December 11, 2007
Waterjet purchase becomes watershed moment
Allright Tool Co. is a woman-owned, family-operated machine shop in Birmingham, Ala. Founded by the Whittingtons in their basement in 1972, the shop began by taking on odd jobs for a large steel company. Over the next 30 years, the shop grew to be a 22,000-square-foot facility equipped with... Read more...
Spanish
October 9, 2007
Doblando los nuevos tipos de acero de alta resistencia
Han surgido varios tipos nuevos de aceros de alta resistencia que han traído consigo una gran cantidad de oportunidades. Sin embargo, estos nuevos tipos también traen consigo retos que no son comunes en el doblez de acero suave, y con éstos, la necesidad de nuevas herramientas y nuevas... Read more...
Article
July 10, 2007
Article
March 13, 2007
Bending the new breeds of high-strength steel
This heavy-duty gooseneck punch with an acute-angle 1V die provides the ability to overbend material to compensate for springback.
Since the early 1980s, sheet metal fabricators have, for the most part, followed a pretty basic set of rules to air-bend mild steel. To determine the... Read more...
Article
August 8, 2006
Opening the gate to efficiency
Dotting the rolling landscape on U.S. 127 in Kentucky, just south of Danville, are a half-dozen small gate manufacturers. As is typical in many rural areas throughout the nation, most of these shops are small operations where people have learned how to use their skills to contribute to... Read more...
Article
July 11, 2006
Reaching peak performance, productivity
Robotic welding has helped Alpine Engineered Products improve productivity, weld consistency, and overall product quality; eliminate outsourcing; and cut lead-times for its line of truss fabrication tables. The company invested inrobotic welding equipment that performs 85... Read more...
Article
June 13, 2006
Fabricator puts the brake on bend inconsistency
When you think of Nebraska, you probably think of farming. Well-known for endless fields that cover 96 percent of the state, Nebraska produces vast amounts of corn, soybeans, alfalfa, and wheat. Look a little closer, though, and you realize that the so-called Rust Belt has crept westward... Read more...
Article
May 9, 2006
Productivity—The human factor
Each month the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports the productivity and costs numbers. Why? Productivity is an economic barometer.
A measure of economic efficiency, productivity shows how effectively economic inputs—labor, materials, equipment—are... Read more...
Article
April 11, 2006
Fastener insertion technology moves ahead
Advanced hardware insertion technology offers visual guides to ensure correct insertion and allows fabricators to install multiple sizes and types of fasteners. It's a fact many have pondered often for many years now but that must continue to be discussed: The face of fabricating in... Read more...
Article
February 7, 2006
A new energy in appliance manufacturing
Flex Bed Panel Forming Die and Press New body styles, colors, and options are a must in the automotive industry. The same goes for household appliances, as colors and shapes — as well as internal gadgetry — continue to evolve. Although consumer demands are partially... Read more...
Article
February 7, 2006
Selecting equipment for maximum productivity
One of the simplest ways to increase productivity in a metal fabrication shop is to purchase a new machine, usually the largest machine you can afford. But where do you go from there? Does every subsequent purchase have to be bigger and better? Sometimes, but not always. With a little... Read more...
Article
November 8, 2005
Just say no to rework
The "3, 6-12, 24" rule is good to know when you're selecting tooth pitch for a particular application. No fewer than 3 teeth should be in the work at any given time, but never more than 24. Reducing the time and cost associated with band sawing rework operations is key to increasing... Read more...
Article
November 8, 2005
Growing gains with lasers
Growing pains with lasers
Significant investment in laser processing equipment helps Laser Precision process both shim-thick stainless steel to 1-inch-thick plate and remain competitive by keeping labor needs low.
It took one phrase to change Jeff Adams' direction in... Read more...
Article
September 14, 2004
Winning with Lean
Larry Martin hates the term lean manufacturing. "When someone mentions lean manufacturing, it usually conjures up visions of layoffs and a stark, militarylike plant," said Larry Martin, vice president of Utah-based Martin Door Manufacturing Inc. He blames lean manufacturing's bad... Read more...
Article
July 13, 2004
Pushing plate processing productivity
An infinite-rotation compound-skew-axis manipulator with a plasma torch allows automated contour bevel cutting of mild steel, stainless steel, and aluminum. Maximizing productivity. Making more with less. You hear about it almost every day. Productivity improvements are what saved... Read more...
Article
August 28, 2003
Safety pays
Now more than ever, fabricators must believe that safety pays . It pays to make safety a high priority, to invest in safety training, and to provide a safe workplace. The pressure to reduce costs during this very competitive time is great, but it is imperative that owners and managers... Read more...
Article
January 16, 2003
KNOWLEDGE: The key to welding productivity?
In the year 2000 manufacturing, construction, and mining industries had $34.1 billion worth of welding-related expenses. At the same time more than a half million people in the U.S. had welding-related jobs -- and that's not counting self-employed and nonproduction welders. Yet many... Read more...
Article
June 27, 2002
Committing to consistent preventative maintenance
Why do we pay lip service to preventive maintenance but seldom practice it? Performing routine maintenance tasks on a predetermined schedule can maintain maximum productivity, minimize the number of unplanned outages, minimize the need for outside contractors, and minimize after-hours emergency... Read more...
Article
March 26, 2002
Is Your Welding Lean?
Following World War II and during the rebuilding of the Japanese industrial base manufacturers recognized that to restore production of manufactured goods and be globally competitive, new methods were necessary. One of the pioneers in this re-engineering of manufacturing was Toyota, led by... Read more...
Article
February 14, 2002
Principles of welding productivity
It is the welding manager's responsibility to allocate the resources required to achieve cost-effectiveness in welding processes. It also is the manager's responsibility to maintain equipment and consistently meet throughput requirements with a level of quality that conforms to the required... Read more...
Article
July 26, 2001
Analyzing shear features
Figure 1:
A guillotine shear has a moving blade that runs on straight slides. The moving blade is almost parallel to the fixed blade during the entire stroke.
Sheet metal and plate shearing machines are used in many fabricating and sheet metal operations. Before... Read more...
Article
July 12, 2001
Article
July 12, 2001
Article
February 15, 2001
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