Cutting Weld Labor Before Full Implementation
Creating a more repeatable and scalable process with Bluco modular solutions
Industry
Industrial Equipment
Challenge
Skilled Labor Shortage
Challenges
Like many manufacturers, this metal fabricator had built its process around what had always worked – until “good enough” was no longer enough.
They’d been producing one of their secondary containment tank assemblies the same way for nearly 10 years. The build-time was too slow and it relied heavily on skilled labor, manual measuring, and experience-based fit-up to keep large, fabricated components moving through production.
When they began looking for a better way to build the assembly, the goal wasn’t simply to buy a fixture. It was to reduce weld labor, create a more controlled process, and support a broader move toward modular workholding across their entire fabrication base and across multiple locations.
Bridging the Engineering Gap
They started with a modular advantage, since they already had Bluco tooling on hand from a finished project involving the build of a completely different part. Given the positive outcome of that project (they held a 1.7 mm tolerance across 23 feet for all 3,500 ESS enclosures they built), they were confident modular was the right way to go.
Bluco’s team reconfigured their existing modular components, engineering a rail system to build the tank’s exterior and sub-components. The rails provide a flat, qualified surface on which U-forms can be easily moved in precise increments to adjust for any size variation. Uprights are attached to the U-forms to provide dimensional accuracy and squareness while also providing ample space to add clamps.
The precision of the rail system, and the efficiency of the process that goes with it, means quality stays consistent, throughput is accelerated, and onboarding is much faster. Plus, the system can be adjusted to hold multiple tank sizes, or to accommodate product revisions or new models. Because it contains only standard parts, it can also be easily duplicated.
Projected X-Factor Improvement
Even before the full system was complete, they began seeing measurable gains. The team cut an average of 25 hours of weld labor from the project, with their fastest build so far dropping 34 hours from the total. By reducing the dependency on manual measuring and hard-to-find skilled labor, this manufacturer is creating a more repeatable process that can scale beyond one project, one workstation, or one facility.
MODULAR SOLUTION FACTORS THAT CONTRIBUTED TO OVERALL TIME-SAVINGS:
- Less manual measuring
- Lower weld labor hours
- Scalable across projects & facilities
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