TIP TIG Welding is always better quality than TIG and 100 to 500% faster with superior quality than TIG - MIG - FCAW.

 

MIG Welding and Flux Cored.

Read how Ed's USA - Europe "Pulsed MIG Overlay Clad Weld Patent" developed
for WSI (Aquilex) Atlanta, will dramatically improve the weld quality productivity of global boiler, water walls.

Ed's vertical down, pulsed MIG Inconel / stainless overlay welds.

The following are a few of the companies that Ed generated dramatic cost reductions through manual / robot weld process optimization. Harley - GM - Corvette - Volvo - Ford / Chrysler - Subaru - Volkswagen - Mercedes - Honda - GE - ABB-Westinghouse - Babcock - Textron - General Dynamics - Imperial Oil - Combustion Engineering - Hydro Aluminum - Hayes Lemmerz - Fruehauf Trailers - Case - Club Car - Genie - Sky Track - Manatowic - John Deere - Caterpillar - Johnson Controls - Monroe.

Click to view other companies that
have benefited from Ed's MIG Welding process improvements

MANAGEMENT & WELD LIABILITY CONSEQUENCES: The list of annual catastrophic weld failures grows larger every year.

In the global industries that utilize the MIG and flux cored process, hundreds of millions of dollars are daily spent on unnecessary NDT costs, weld rejects and weld rework. Take a look around you. Look at the weld quality on those truck frames, the welds on those industrial machines, the welds on those process machines, weight lifting equipment, the poor welds on ships, bikes, trains, bridges, pipe and heavy duty construction equipment.

If you have any doubts about why anyone in the weld business should be concerned about global MIG and flux cored weld quality, you may want to take trip to my Bad Weld Section and read about about the buildings and bridges that toppled during the last major earth quake in California.

The California buildings which were designed to stand erect during seismic loads, toppled due to the use of unsuitable Lincoln, Self Shielded flux cored wires, poor weld techniques, and inexperienced designers, construction supervisors, engineers and project managers, personnel who were and likely still are not qualified to make sound weld process decisions.

FROM AUTO PLANTS TO REFINERIES, EVIDENCE OF MIG WELDING AND FLUX CORED WELD PROCESS CONTROL RIGOR MORTISE IS A COMMON THEME:The year was 1984. I was asked to consult for one of the largest oil refineries in Houston Texas. At the refinery a new section was about to be added. The pipe project required over a thousand pipe welds. At the refinery, there was great resistance from both the engineers and project management to using the cost effective, all weld position, gas shielded flux cored wires. In contrast the engineers wanted to stay in their comfort zone and use the traditional SMAW (stick) process for the pipe fill pass welds. The engineers were not concerned that the use of the gas shielded flux cored process, would have created for their company superior welds and a weld cost savings of approx. two million dollars.

In the 1984 weld report I presented to some Houston refinery management, I wrote: "On the subject of weld process quality / productivity optimization for the new pipe welding installations at your refinery. During the weld meetings I attended with your contractors and project managers, I hope you are aware that those engineers and project managers that were the most vocal against the utilization of the highly cost effective, easy to use gas shielded flux cored process, were the least qualified to have an opinion on this important welding process".

Management and Process Ownership.

Management Consequences and Liability.

Every manager and engineer in an industry that daily deals with critical weld applications, should ask the following fundamental question. Do the weld managers and personnel in this corporation, daily hold themselves fully accountable for the quality of our products manufactured and do they fully understand the processes utilized?

 

2007: Many managers and engineers have kept their
petro chemical, pressure vessel and pipe industry
applications stuck in a welding time warp.

2007: You would be astonished to find that in the next decade, many global chemical plants, refineries and, power plants will be constructed using SMAW (stick) electrodes and the regular TIG process as the primary weld processes. The processes, weld consumables and procedures utilized in the next decade to build these billion dollar projects were likely established in the 1950's and 1960's. Thanks to design and project engineers who lack a comfort level with any process other than the stick and the regular TIG process, few construction projects will utilize the much more cost effective, easier to use TIP TIG process for the millions of welds required.

 

MOST MECHANICAL, ELECTRICAL AND CIVIL ENGINEERS THAT ARE MADE RESPONSIBLE FOR PROJECTS THAT INVOLVE WELDS ARE OF COURSE NOT QUALIFIED TO MAKE WELD PROCESS DECISIONS. THESE MANAGERS WILL HAVE A DIFFICULT TIME WITH WELD PROCESS OWNERSHIP AND TYPICALLY THESE GUYS WILL RECOMMEND WELD PROCESSES USED ON SIMILAR PROJECTS THAT WERE BUILT 30 YEARS AGO.

Aug. 2007. I had just been in a plant in which DOW chemical engineers had requested that a 3 inch (75mm) thick, 304 stainless nozzle, approx. 8 feet (> 2 m) in diameter was to be welded with 1/8 (3.2 mm) diameter stick electrodes. I wonder if the corporate management at DOW are aware that for decades, many of their engineers and project managers have on numerous construction projects and applications dramatically increased the weld labour costs for the simple reason they insist on the utilization of stick electrodes, ignore MIG, and lack the confidence to recommend the thirty year old, gas shielded flux cored process.

Today in 2010 we have the TIP TIG process which is superior to regular TIG and flux cored and I wonder how many years it will be before this process receives the regognition it deserves.

Ed providing MIG Process Control Training for
robot personnel at a Magna plant in USA.


MIG welds on a car / truck, or in the root pass of a pipe. Optimum welds
comes from optimum parameters and the correct techniques.

On the left. Ed training American ship yard welders on how to use flux cored wires without "playing around" with the weld controls. In the middle, Ed shows 11 old Jesse how to use low pulsed MIG settings to weld the root pass on a
16 inch, natural gas pipe. On the right. Ed training highly experienced Imperial Oil, SMAW pipe workers how to use MIG and flux cored on their pipe welds.

With the MIG and flux cored processes, it's not uncommon to find three missing links in global weld shops:


[1] Lack of weld management / engineering Weld Process Ownership.

[2] Lack of the establishment of Best Weld Practices.

[3] Lack of the establishment of effective Process Control Training programs that lead to the implementation of highly effective Weld Process Controls.

Perhaps it's time for the captains of the weld industry to roll up their sleeves, switch off those computers, step into the weld shop for more than five minutes. While in the shop look around and ask this simple question. "What makes this weld shop better than a good weld shop in the 1960s"?

 

YOU WANT ADVICE FROM A GAS SALESMAN?

Or you want the MIG Welding Gas facts

 

MANAGEMENT TAKE NOTE. WELD PROCESS OWNERSHIP DOES NOT START ON THE WELD SHOP FLOOR: Weld improvement recommendations will often come from shop floor personnel, however positive change which impacts either the weld quality and productivity should be implemented and owned by engineers and managers and then controlled by weld supervisors, QA personnel and technicians. From a report Ed provided to General Motors in the nineteen eighties.

Recommended reading for every weld decision maker.
"Ed's Management Engineers Guide to
MIG and Flux Cored Weld Process Control"

YOUR WELD MANAGEMENT FOCUS IS WHERE?: Of course any North American organization should be exited about it's new Six Sigma employees or the implementation of the latest Lean Manufacturing craze from Japan or an ISO improvement established in Europe, however be aware that when trying to optimise welds, it's logical that Weld Best Practices and Weld Process Controls are more important functions for any weld organization.


WHEN YOU PURCHASED THAT OVERPRICED PULSED MIG EQUIPMENT DID YOU KNOW ABOUT IT'S ACHILLES HEEL? Even with the world's most costly pulsed MIG equipment you can on many common, simple weld applications create serious weld issues. When you have a moment, visit the Pulsed MIG Welding section where you will find out about sales BS and useless costly wave forms with Ed's perspective on the Pulsed MIG Achilles Heel.

For those interested in providing cost effective, optimum quality
MIG and flux cored welds, it's important that you;

[1] Have the ability to sort out the weld salesmanship from the weld process reality.

[2] Attain your weld process knowledge from from qualified unbiased sources,

[3] Have the ability and desire to take ownership and optimise the processes you control through the implementation of
Best Weld Practices and Weld Process Controls

[4] Understand that the TIP TIG process introduced to North America at this site will always provide superior weld quality than Pulsed MIG and should be given consideration for many pulsed MIG and regular TIG weld applications.

 

Visit the most comprehensive weld process control training data available
on the regular MIG, Pulsed MIG, Flux Cored and TIP TIG processes.

 

2007: ENGINEERS. THE CONSEQUENCES OF POOR WELD PROCESS AND CONSUMABLE CHOICES:

The selection of Self Shielded (SS) flux core wires is common for buildings and steel structures yet most pipe
projects, ship yards and heavy equipment equipment manufactures would never consider the inferior SS products. Engineers and architects who are too busy to read my welding books will frequently take advice from a sales rep or from the companies who make the SS weld consumables. The wide use of the SS wires is again another example of lack of process expertise and a lack of management / engineering weld process ownership.

When welds that are supposed to hold, "don't"

THIS COULD HAVE BEEN A MOVIE: READ ABOUT THE LINCOLN SELF SHIELDED FLUX CORED WELD WIRES, THE UNUSUAL
LINCOLN FEMA RELATIONSHIP AND STRUCTURAL WELDING DISASTER AND FIASCO THAT OCCURED IN THIS CALIFORNIA
EARTH QUAKE?

Please Note: The correct process and weld consumable selection becomes irrelevant once salesmanship has an influence instead of engineering logic or when the weld personnel involved have to "play around" with their weld controls. Ensure your weld decision maker understand whats BS and whats real and the weld work force is provided with the process control training (nothing to do with skills training) necessary to optimise the process / consumables utilized.

There is always a price for weld process and weld consumable ignorance;

[a] the daily weld scrap will be expensive,
[b] the daily weld rework will be costly,
[c] the daily weld productivity will rarely meet it's potential,
[d] the weekly weld team meetings will be fruitless,
[e] the weld employee moral will be low,
[f] the weld failures and liability consequences could be dramatic.

 

THE MIG PROCESS IS MORE THAN 50 YEARS OLD
YET THEY STILL PAY WITH THE WELD CONTROLS:
WHEN WILL THEY EVER LEARN?

 

When company managers and engineers don't understand Robot Best Weld Practices and lack the ability to set Robot Weld Process controls, they produce Truck Frames that look like this.

 

An ironic point: A Big Three company had to get these truck frames welded by a Tier one supplier because the Big Three managers / engineers lacked the robot / MIG weld process knowledge necessary to manage cost affective robot MIG welding lines in their plants. As these welds indicate, the Tier one supplier engineers and managers seem to have the same lack of robot MIG weld process control expertise as the Big Three company.

 

Click here for an interesting perspective of the similarities
of the weld management found in the auto and oil industries.

2007: Have you viewed Ed's new

"ED'S SEVEN STEPS TO ROBOT MIG / PULSED
WELD BEST PRACTICES / PROCESS CONTROLS"

Training Resources

 

 

 

NO MATTER WHAT THE INDUSTRY, AS LONG AS ITS
USING MIG AND FLUX CORED WELDS, YOU WON'T
HAVE TO LOOK FAR TO FIND WELD OWNERSHIP ISSUES.

 

 

LACK OF BEST WELD PRACTICES & PROCESS CONTROLS.
FLUX CORED WELDS AND BROKEN SHIPS.

Over 300 ships will tear apart and sink this year. How many
ships will sink due to the Ocean Conditions, the Steels Used,
Poor Fit, or from Lack of Best Weld Practices and Process Controls?

The navy may go on missions looking for the elusive terrorists and the very well hidden weapons of mass destruction, however if I was a sailor on any global built vessel, I would keep my eye on the ship's welds and be just a little nervous about the next great ocean waves that that pound the ship .

The greatest characters in any industry
are often found in a ship yard:

I have trained welders and assisted ship yards with weld cost reductions in both the USA and Canada. What a place a ship yard would be for a reality TV show. In the yards I worked with Norwegians, Swedish, Danish, German, Polish, Italian. English, Korean, Japanese, Yanks, Brits and Canadians and and don't forget those tenacious thick skinned, highly intelligent, canny, wee Scottish welders. My experiences with these hard working great welding characters indicated that most played around with their weld controls and none of them had ever received MIG or flux cored weld process control training, (for the trainers stuck in the 1970s, MIG and Flux Cored process control training has nothing to do with the weld skills training so often associated with STICK welding). The ship yard experiences, increased both my sense of humour and the thickness of my skin. The experience also taught me a great respect for the many welders who worked summer and winter in harsh conditions, men and women who often gave a hundred percent for too many ivory tower managers and engineers who were stuck in a time warp and rarely gave fifty percent. Click here for Ed's new MIG and Flux Core Weld Process Control Training resources.

Visit all the Welding information at this Site.

 

 

ROBOT WELD QUALITY,
EFFICIENCY, PRODUCTIVITY AND COSTS.

1987 to 2010: In the majority of global manufacturing facilities, robot weld best practices and process controls are rare, robot weld productivity is rarely optimised as robot weld efficiency is rarely understood and the efficiency is typically less than 60%. Robot weld rework is too much and too frequent and few managers or engineers involved with the robots understand the real cost of a simple
3/16 (5 mm) fillet weld. I first wrote this in 1987 and in 2010 little has changed.

ITS NOT WORKING SHOULD MEAN IT'S TIME TO CHANGE: In North America, thanks to manufacturing practices preached from some confused manufacturing executives in Detroit, the auto and truck industry has over three decades developed armies of white collar "hands off managers and engineers". Perhaps the annual approx. 15 - 20 billion dollars spent in the auto / truck industry on warranty claims, recall costs and rework has something to do with the management / engineering philosophy and practices utilized.

A COMMON WELD PRACTICE IN MANY PLANTS: The process engineers document the less than optimum processes, while the QA personnel document the sad welding results. A question you could ask at many plants. What people resources are in place to attain optimum process results that will ensure consistent weld productivity / quality with minimum weld defects and minimum weld rework?

This site provides a clear and sometimes uncomfortable management / engineering message about common global MIG and flux cored weld issues that cost the weld industry hundreds of millions of dollars daily. This site make no apology to those it upsets as they don't have to spend time at a site that's taken over 10 years to produce, however I believe this site does provide the root cause of those issues and more important provides logical, cost effective welding solutions.

OVERWORKED, UNDERTAINED AND UNDERPAID TECHNICIANS: The too common, leave it to the people on the shop floor engineering mentality has resulted in a global robot weld industry in which over worked and often under trained robot technicians frequently feel isolated. These technicians too frequently take too much ownership and responsibility for the plant's daily robot weld quality and productivity issues.

While focused on the European influenced ISO standards or the latest lean manufacturing fad from Asia, global major auto / truck manufacturing QA managers have for decades placed focus on finding rather than on "preventing weld defects". To resolve either your manual / robot weld production issues and reduce the weld rejects and weld rework, read one of Ed's books or examine his MIG and Flux Cored Process Control Training Programs.

WELD CULTURE?

2010: IT'S NOT LEAN MANUFACTURING KNOWLEDGE THAT SEPARATES THE NORTH AMERICAN AND JAPANESE CULTURES, IT'S THE MANAGEMENT AND ENGINEERING APPROACH TO WELD ACCOUNTABILITY, RESPONSIBILITY
AND PROCESS OWNERSHIP.

It may come as a shock to the new president of Ford as he drove his Japanese Lexus to work, to find that the majority of the metal fabrication engineers and managers in his organization are poorly trained in the implementation of fundamental Best Weld Practices or Weld Process Controls, also few of his managers have to date shown an interest in process ownership.

Visit any Big Three or Tier one part supplier on a weekend and you will find a robot technician who has already worked sixty hours from Monday to Friday struggling to provide weld solutions to management and engineering induced problems. When did you last see a manager or a corporate type hanging around a robot weld cell on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon?

The primary difference between a Japanese weld manufacturing manager and a North American manufacturing manager is not process expertise. Typically the Japanese management actually will know less about production welding than the American managers do, (a scary statement). The difference between the two cultures will often be revealed by the management approach and "management participation" in dealing with the root cause of their manufacturing problems.


The typical American manufacturing manager will frequently be a fire fighter, forever chasing the production fires yet never finding out the root cause of why they started. In contrast, the Japanese managers typically shows more than a passing interest in finding the root cause of their process or equipment issues. In many instances the Japanese manager may not find the optimum solution, however the fact that the manager is prepared to spend time on the shop floor and has some interest in the process ownership will usually have beneficial results.

Anyone who has had to work with Japanese welding robots should be aware that during the last two decades, a common Japanese Achilles' heel in high volume weld manufacturing has been their undaunted belief in ineffective, costly, useless electronic bells and whistles. Who else but the Japanese would build plants in North America and believe that the only robots, weld equipment and consumables that would work, had to be made in Japan.

If the Japanese managers in North American facilities truly understood welding and evaluated the Japanese products frequently forced on them, they would find that in most instances the Japanese equipment and process performance was inferior to alternative products made outside Japan. These managers would also find that during the last two decades, a prime root cause of their auto / truck robot welding issues was Japanese poor performing, inconsistent MIG welding equipment. To read more on Japanese robots and their pulsed MIG weld equipment issues, visit the MIG , Pulsed MIG and Robot sections of this site.

Ed Set the Robot welds on this Genie equipment, and set the robot welds on
Club Car golf cart he used in this ship yard. He also trained the Aker
ship weld personnel at this yard in flux cored process optimization.

Too many North American manufacturing
companies travel this southern route.


[] Purchase more robots than they need and over spend on equipment and fixtures.

[] Don't build the robot welded parts in accordance with the design dimension tolerances

[] Don't build fixtures that will optimise the robot weld quality and production potential

[] Suffer the weld production / quality consequences of a lack of management process ownership.

[] Don't understand the Best Weld Practices and Process Control training programs necessary for their employees.

[] Shut down the robot lines, sweep the manufacturing problems under the rug, say adios amigo,
then ship the parts, equipment and jobs to China or Mexico.

IN MANY OF THE BIG THREE PLANTS I VISITED, THE MOST DIFFICULT
THING TO FIND WAS A MANAGER WHO ACCEPTED WELD
MANUFACTURING OWNERSHIP AND RESPONSIBILITY.

Car / Truck Middle Management. In the last decade the big three have lost more than 100 billion dollars to unnecessary product warranty, recall rework and loss of productivity issues. How many manufacturing managers or engineers have looked in a mirror and felt a twinge of guilt about their influence on the quality of the products they produce and the unnecessary costs they daily generate.

Car / Truck Designers. If the designers at the Big Three companies believed the cars they designed for the last two decades was what Americans truly desired, then shame on them. You all know their products, the only place they look good is in a Wallmart parking lot and the next time your wife drags you around Wallmart take a look at that parking lot. You will find it difficult to distinguish that Ford product from the GM or Chrysler product.

It's also a SAD FACT that the majority of designers have shown minimal interest in the welding processes used to join their parts. Many of their parts that daily end up in the part reject and weld rework bins would have had less weld issues if the designer understood the compatibility of the weld process and consumables used on their components. Designers could read a welding book and get familiar with the processes that join their parts, then again why bother, after all they have shown no interest for decades.

Car / Truck Workers. As the shop floor employees daily walk past the full reject / rework bins located in their work areas, and in the lunch room they read the reports on the annual warranty and recall costs, how many reflect on the legacy of Henry Ford, or remember a time just a few decades ago, when American cars and trucks were considered the world's best. To retain jobs both the union and workers need to have a greater input into the quality of the components they derive a living from, and the first thing they should insist on is recognize the expertise they don't have and insist that management provide training that provides the necessary improvements.

Car / Truck Engineers: I spent decades in Detroit manufacturing facilities and at the supplier plants and could not remember meeting an engineer who had established weld best practices or process controls for the robot welding processes. Typically when a Detroit engineer hears about a problem on the floor he grabs his cell phone and asks for assistance from a technician. Engineers in Detroit could learn from the engineers who run ships, these degreed individuals don't sit in front of computers they are in the ships hold (hands on) maintaining and repairing any problems that occur.

Car / Truck Confused HR Personnel will frequently request that the newly hired weld engineer should have robot, press and paint shop experience. This too common multitask request in a job description for someone to solve robot welding issues, is a reflection of the ignorance and lack of understanding of management / HR for the expertise necessary for someone to control and to optimise a major process. HR departments take note, there are no multi process experts in North America and it's likely there never will be, and until you insist that engineers roll up their sleeves if you want results hire a technician and pay him the same wage you would pay that engineer.

Want Add, Auto Industry: Wanted Weld Engineer with robot, MIG / Resistance welding, paint and press shop expertise: The reality is there are no multi-process control experts, you can spend a lifetime with any one of these processes and still learn each day. To get process optimizations requires process specialization and this is a fundamental fact few managers understand. If a confused manufacturing management does not know what it wants, and it tells the confused HR department what it wants, will the company get what it needs for it's weld process optimisation?

 

THIS MAKES THE DREAM WELD TEAM.

WHAT IS THE ROBOT WELD DREAM TEAM? is a team made up of a manufacturing manager, production supervisor, mfg. engineer, maintenance manager, robot technician and a representative operator from the shop floor. Of course for the team be fully effective, the team members should understand the "fundamental requirements" of Best Weld Practice and Weld Process Controls.

Review Ed's Management & Engineers Guide to MIG
book and process control training resources.

When they need advice about the fifty year old MIG process, over 80% of global weld shops will in the next month,
pick up a phone and ask an organization that makes or sells the weld equipment or consumables used in their plants.

It's a sad reality, that many of the manufacturing engineers, supervisors and managers involved in welding, have become little more than glorified purchasing personnel and to solve a weld process problem, these individuals will frequently pick up a phone and contact a biased individual for advice.

Most of the great world war one / two posters on this site are Fed Gov. Posters
available at Northwestern University Library. Ed has of course has
made subtle changes to the poster messages.

"MANAGEMENT AND LACK OF RECOGNITION FOR
THE REQUIRED TECHNICAL PROCESS EXPERTISE".

For decades as the global MIG welding industry focused on "weld skills" rather than on weld process control expertise. This is the prime reason in the majority of weld shops you will find manual and robot MIG weld personnel "playing around" with the MIG weld controls.

BEST PRACTICES AND A LACK GLOBAL WELD LOGIC:

Joe, I want to see you go on the weld manufacturing process offense, which has to be better than forever living with the costly weld results from your typical "hands off management defence".

HOW MANY NEW JOBS DID
POOR GEORGE GENERATE?

SEPT. 2006: I WAS ASKED TO RECTIFY A ROBOT MIG WELD POROSITY PROBLEM ON STEEL PARTS FOR USA TIER ONE SUPPLIER WHO MADE PARTS FOR SUBARU AND TOYOTA. I VISITED THE MIDWEST PLANT ON THE HOLIDAY WEEKEND WHICH REVEALS THE QUALITY OF MY LIFE.

The robot MIG welded parts were galvanealed steel suspension parts and the robot cell welded 600 parts per day. The weld repair rate was over 15% and the final weld assembly cycle time was approx. three minutes forty seconds.

As the overworked robot programmer and I made the changes to the robot welded parts, I was amazed to find that the Japanese company president and "chief operating officer" stayed with us on both the Saturday and Sunday. The confused robots were from Motorman and the weld power sources were from Panasonic, from my past experiences this was a poor combination. The none pulsed, five year old Panasonic power sources were erratic, un-calibrated and produced poor arc welding characteristics. I have to work with the tools supplied, so in a ten hour period involving programming and process improvements, I got rid of the weld problems and gave the plant an unexpected bonus by lowering the robot weld cycle time from three minutes forty secs to one minute forty seconds.

The weld quality and productivity gains bought a big smile to that president and chief officer's face and my small enumeration was in the mail within a week. In the past decades, I provided similar process improvement to the Big Three and other part suppliers, however I rarely saw any real interest from the management for their manual or robot weld issues and my resolutions. Also I never saw a manager come in on the weekend to discuss or get involved with his plant's weld quality / productivity issues.

IF MANAGERS AND ENGINEERS DON'T GET THE PROCESS CONTROL FUNDAMENTALS OF MIG, METAL CORED OR FLUX CORED, THEIR ATTITUDE AND APPROACH TO WELDING IS LIKELY TO BE, "WHY CHANGE, AFTER ALL THIS IS THE WAY WE HAVE ALWAYS DONE IT"

"We lost too many good paying USA manufacturing
jobs due to Washington politicans and
manufacturing management incompetence".

1900s. In less than 18 months Chrysler management lost over 14 million dollars from a new robot welding line located in it's prime stamping facility in Ohio. The robot line was designed to weld Neon cross-members. This line never made more than 50% of it's daily robot weld production goals . The daily robot weld rework was 100%. The robot welds were made with Lincoln, self shielding (SS) flux cored wires.

The Chrysler stamping plant manager requested my assistance. I came up with a MIG weld process solution to fix all the welding issues which were caused predominately by the poor choice of the the Lincoln SS wires. The SS wires were chosen by the Chrysler corporate weld engineer. For self preservation reasons the Chrysler corporate weld engineer declined my low cost, proven MIG process solution. Eventually the Chrysler management made a gutsy decision. The Neon stampings and almost new robots were loaded into trucks and shipped out of sight south to Mexico. The reason for the robot line shut down and loss of jobs, was not the cheaper Mexican labor, the reason was the Chrysler management and engineers involved with the project;

[a] lacked the ability to design parts suited for robot welds,
[b] lacked the ability to build parts to their own design tolerances,
[c] lacked the ability to make rational weld process and consumable decisions,
[d] lacked the ability to establish effective robot weld process controls.
[e] lacked the ability to stand up to the weld engineer and take responsibility and ownership for the equipment and processes they purchased.

The manufacturing Industry should take a lesson from this "hands off engineering event". More on the multi-million dollar Chrysler Story:

"JOE. GLOBAL COMPETITION SHOULD BRING OUT
THE BEST, NOT THE WORST IN A COMPANY"

UNFORTUNATELY IN THIS COMPANY, WHAT WE NEED
TODAY IS TO REDEFINE WHAT THAT BEST IS.

02/08: Take a look inwards America and learn from history. As congress wastes time interviewing base ball players about steroid use and spending over a trillion dollars trying to find a 6' - 10" Arab. The USA debt is at it's greatest, the American infrastructure and economy is crumbling and our global respect has never been so low. America reminds me of the Roman empire when it started to crumble. Those Roman senators and lawyers were made rich with the payola from the senate lobbyists. The politicians were not interested in maintaining the Roman empire or managing it's fiscal responsibility. The Roman Senators plan was a simple one, keep the public focus of the economy and keep it on the Coliseum and the games. In America politicians use fear and terrorists threats to keep American minds of the crumbling infrastructure, the unemployment, the poor health care and poor education.

We cannot live in the past.
We can only evolve through change.

"2010... Boys if you know anything about the second World War it's ironic fact that
with our high unemployement you are standing on a great new American ship
made with steels and parts supplied from Japan, China, Russia and Germany".

"Now with one voice lets
all sing God Bless America".




Management?

IMAGINE THIS IN
YOUR WELD SHOP:

[] Imagine daily weld shop management and engineering decisions made without the aid of weld sales advice.

[] Imagine management and engineers reading a book or taking a course on MIG Weld Process Control or
Best Weld Practices and actually taking an active roll in weld process ownership.

[] Imagine management and engineer who could look at any MIG wire feed control, the weld wire
and the weld size and instantly tell you the cost of a weld.

[] Imagine management and engineers that are responsible for robots and these individuals truly understand the "people process control training requirements" necessary to attain optimum, consistent manual or robot MIG weld quality / productivity.

[] Imagine manufacturing plants that own robots that daily can achieve > 98% production efficiency potential and never attain more than 2% weld rework.

To meet the above requirements you may wish to check out Ed's weld process educational and training resources, after all weld process knowledge is the logical step to the establishment of Best Weld Practices and Weld Process Controls.

"Accountability"

" LOOKING FOR SOMEONE TO BLAME".

DID THOSE GUYS ON THE SHOP FLOOR SCREW UP AGAIN? During the last four decades in ten different countries I frequentheard complaints from hundreds of manufacturing managers and engineers about the problems of "those blue collar people on the shop floor" and their influence on the daily poor weld quality and productivity.




The message from this web site will always remain a fundamental one. If global weld management really wanted to know who was responsible for the root cause of their numerous, daily, manual and robot MIG / flux cored weld issues, all they have to do is look in a mirror.

WELD MANAGEMENT & SHIP CAPTAINS:
A qualified ship's captain will be well acquainted with the technical requirements of running a ship. and captain knows that he will have full ownership, responsibility and accountability for the daily operation and performance of his ship.

In contrast to the ship's captain, you will find the majority of global major manufacturers of welded components, will have managers and engineers (captains and officers) who have the misguided believe that equipment ownership and responsibility for daily weld production and quality should be controlled by the hourly paid individuals (crew) on the shop floors.

HOW MANY GLOBAL COMPANIES PAID FOR TWO
ROBOTS WHEN ONE ROBOT SET CORRECTLY WOULD HAVE DONE?



With common global robot MIG weld production efficiency typically in
the 40% to 70% range, and average daily robot weld rework in the
20 to 100% range, many plants will use 1.5 to 2 robots to do
the work that could readily be achieved by one robot.

Ed developed the world's most effective MIG /
Flux Cored, manual / robot weld best practices
and process control training / self teaching resources.





What an environment a welding shop would be
without thick skin and a sense of humor.

If asked for his opinion on MIG spray transfer versus pulsed MIG to weld carbon steels > 6 mm, Albert who knew a lot about the structure of the universe and other important stuff that did not pay the rent, might have made the following statement.

Einstein's Theory on MIG welding. "According to my theory. With the coalescence that forms in a steel weld joint > 6 mm, the nearly constant weld joules attainable from the low cost, durable CV MIG equipment that provides traditional spray transfer, will of course be superior to a pulsed MIG mode in which the alternating peak and back ground parameters are necessary to form a weld drop that falls axially across an open arc in a protected atmosphere.

A Pathetic Ed Joke:

IN TOO MANY PLANTS, WHEN IT COMES TO THE ROBOT MIG WELDS,
THE WHITE FLAG HAS BEEN RAISED FOR DECADES:

It's unfortunate in the many plants in which management and engineers shy away from their important manufacturing processes, that it's the shop floor workers that daily suffer the manual / robot weld consequences: In these plants the blue collar guys;

[a] rarely will receive parts to be welded that have dimensions in accordance with the design / manufacturing tolerances,

[b] rarely will be provided with the optimum size / type of weld consumables,

[c] rarely will be provided with optimum robot weld procedures that compensate for the part issues,

[d] rarely will be involved with management / engineered driven best weld practices,

[e] rarely will be aware of the weld costs or real world weld production efficiency potential of their robots,

[f] rarely will receive the required robot or manual "weld process control" training necessary to optimize the equipment, the process and the quality.

Yet these long suffering, mismanaged shop floor personnel will daily be held accountable for the plant's weld quality and productivity issues.

MANAGEMENT WHO LACK THE ABILITY TO EVOLVE A "PLAY AROUND" INDUSTRY.

Would a professional foot ball coach let the players play around in the middle of a game? Would a machine shop manager be happy to see a machines play round with the machine controls. Should a manger be happy to see his workers "play around" with the weld equipment controls while trying to attain daily consistent weld qualify and productivity?


A MESSAGE FROM A FRUSTRATED PLANT MANAGER: "Joe, after watching your robot personnel play around with those weld controls and reviewing the extensive robot weld productivity / quality issues in this plant, I can only come to one conclusion, it's time for us to change our approach to the robots and weld manufacturing.

Lets face it Joe, the people on the shop floor are not the root cause of our robot weld issues, the bottom line for this company is the plant "management" has the responsibility for the daily weld quality and productivity produced in the plants.

To attain effective weld process controls and establish best robot / manual welding practices, management requires the ability to recognize the process expertise necessary for the employees or teams that make the welding decisions. The most effective managers will be those who can recognize and provide the process control training essential for the employees. These Process Control Training Resources are all you need.

 

WHERE DOES THE THE BUCK STOP IN YOUR PLANT?

LIFE: It may be a generation thing, or just the way the world is, but have you noticed how difficult it is to find an honest politician who knows where the buck stops?

WELD MANUFACTURING: In many of the large, global manufacturing companies that consider welding an important process, you would have a difficult time trying to find a manager or engineer who will look you in the eye and state;


" WHEN IT COMES TO THE ROBOT WELD QUALITY AND PRODUCTIVITY, WE KNOW THE BUCK OFTEN
STOPS IN THE WRONG PLACE".

Perhaps after five decades of MIG welding mediocrity and two decades of robot MIG weld travesty, it's time to place a more management and engineering focus on weld manufacturing Responsibility - Accountability - Ownership.

Each day up to twenty thousand global weld decision makers could visit this site. It's a pity that very few of them will be corporate or manufacturing managers and engineers who should have an interest in Best Weld Practices or Weld Process Controls.

DOES THIS ONE PICTURE TRULY REFLECT
THE GLOBAL MIG WELDING INDUSTRY?



Come on you chicklets or miglets, we have to
follow him, after all he is the weld "salesman".

MORE ON WELD MANAGEMENT AND "SALES RELIANCE": For over five decades, in the majority of global weld shops that utilize the MIG process, you would have found an umbilical cord attached from the weld shop supervisor, the manufacturing engineer or manager to a "weld sales person".

As a former training manager for three of the world's largest weld product suppliers, I have trained well over a 1000 weld sales personnel. I would estimate that less than ten percent had the right aptitude and qualifications to provide advice to a weld shop. If you are a supplier and have that one rare individual, hold on to him. The irony however, is that each day, the global weld industry looks for advice from a sales industry in which approx. 90% are not qualified to give that advice.

Many managers with their head in the sand are always looking for a crutch for their weld shop issues. That crutch is frequently the purchase of unnecessary three part gas mixes, costly ineffective metal cored wires and expensive electronic Inverters or pulsed weld equipment that will be laden down with useless bells and whistles.

While many managers did not think twice about the purchase of that inconsistent, poor performing $12,000 pulsed MIG power source for their steel weld applications, few managers have considered the cost effective feature benefits of providing low cost weld process control training to a work force that for decades has "played with the MIG weld controls".

With the right weld process control training, in a few hours, any worker would have the ability to be able to take a low cost $2000, traditional, "none pulsed" MIG power source, a simple two component gas mix and a low cost MIG wire and make it perform as well as a $12,000 power source.

THE COST OF SLOW WELD PROCESS EVOLUTION?

OR THE COSTS OF LACK OF BEST WELD PRACTICES & PROCESS CONTROLS?

How much bang does your company
get from from it's training bucks?

The major automotive plants will typically spend over a 150 million dollars annually on training, yet in Ford, GM and Chrysler plants, the typical MIG welder does not know how to set a MIG machine. I have witnessed many ridiculous things like, at a Ford plant, manual MIG welders welding on truck frames without contact tips in their MIG guns. All corporate management needs to take a closer look at the quality and effectiveness of it's training programs and reflect on the relationship between poor training, liability concerns, warranty issues, recalls, rework, poor productivity and lack of global best practices and process controls.

MANAGEMENT, ENGINEERS AND SUPERVISORS SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED
TO MANAGE A PROCESS WITHOUT THE ABILITY TO RECOGNIZE
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR CONSISTENT PROCESS OPTIMIZATION:

Every time new robots are ordered, the plant management will typically select personnel and send them to a "robot programming school" When I was the robot weld process training manager with ABB, it was notable that the Big Three management would send some employees for robot training who could barely read.

How many manufacturing mangers in the last two decades, gave consideration to sending some one for robot training and then sending that individual for robot weld process control training?

If you think weld process expertise is not important,
try this MIG Weld Process Control Test:

If you have an interest in establishing effective best practices and process controls, you may wish to provide your robot employees with this fundamental MIG and Robot Weld Process Control weld test. At the test completion ask yourself, is this the type of process control data our employees require to attain consistent, optimum manual / robot weld quality and productivity?

Ed spent more than 25 years developing the unique but very simple "Weld Clock Process Control" method. This is world's most effective MIG / flux cored weld process control training program. To ask Ed about this unique yet simple training program, contact Ed at E-mail. ecraig@weldreality.com

"WELD SAFETY NEWS FLASH"

Important Safety Weld Concerns for 2007. Click here for the following weld safety issues. [a] OSHA held hearings on it's proposal to reduce the PEL for hexavelent chromium from 52 micrograms per cubic meter to "1" microgram per cubic meter as an 8 hour time weighted average. See the latest ruling from OSHA. Is it MIG, flux cored or SMAW that create the most stainless fumes concern? [b] Welding on special stainless steels causes occupational asthma. [c] Manganese welding fume law suit and issues with other alloys and weld fumes. [d] Radioactivity and tungsten TIG electrodes. [e] Galvanized Fumes? [f] Carpal tunnel and MIG guns.

WHEN YOU HAVE HANDS OFF WELD MANAGERS, YOU HAVE AN
ORGANIZATION IN WHICH PURCHASING MANAGERS
ARE INVOLVED IN WELD DECISIONS:

For those looking for low cost welding shields.
We ship our disposable weld helmets direct from China

After spending thousands on repairs of his Chrysler Minivan,
my brother Ron decided to look out side the Big Three
for a more reliable vehicle.

 

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