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African Fusion talks to ESAB SA product manager Keith Saunders about InduSuite WeldCloud, ESAB’s collection of digital solutions for enhanced weld quality and productivity, reduced downtime, and simpler automatic process documentation.

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WeldCloud the complete digital workflow solution for fabricatorsInduSuite from ESAB is a portfolio of digital solutions developed to help ESAB customers to improve efficiency and weld quality at every step of the fabrication process, from plate to finished product.

In countries across the world the software is being used with ESAB and non-ESAB welding equipment to improve performance: an Italian manufacturer of agricultural equipment has gained 6 000 additional hours of welding time; a Finnish manufacturer of mining equipment increased arc-on time to 20% – about double the industry average; and a Brazilian petrochemical giant has saved thousands of hours of engineering time while improving weld quality and reducing risk.

InduSuite solutions include WeldCloud Productivity, WeldCloud Fleet and WeldCloud Notes, along with data analytics solutions for plate nesting and cutting and offline robot programming.

The apps help users to:

  • Raise welding quality by developing and ensuring compliance with procedures, standards and regulations.
  • Raise productivity by tracking and analysing welder productivity, quality and consumables usage.
  • Maintain fleet equipment in optimal working condition through machine health monitoring.
  • Assure welder accountability and oversight by tracking key welding and cutting progress.

“We can offer solutions for fabricators from small workshops with a few welding machines to large companies with fleets of equipment on multiple sites. WeldCloud software can be downloaded and run on a laptop, tablet, smartphone, or any device with a Wi-Fi connection and a web browser,” says Keith Saunders, product manager for ESAB South Africa.

“It enables supervisors to see production rates, arc on time, wire usage and a host of other welding parameters more easily than ever before. The data gets downloaded onto a supervisor’s device, who can immediately see, via easily accessible charts, what all the machines are doing; how many welds are being completed; whether they have been done according to the Welding Procedure Specification, and much more. WeldCloud helps supervisors to see exactly what is going on across all shop floors of the operation and it provides much better control over the quality and consistency of welding,” Saunders says.

In terms of hardware, it is also very easy to install. The latest ESAB’s digital power sources have the option of been ordered with the WeldCloud system installed. For older ESAB and non-ESAB machines, there is an external device called a Universal Connector, which gets installed onto the welding machine. These units can be connected to the Wi-Fi and be ready to capture welding data within five minutes. “So it doesn’t matter how old the welding machines being used are or if a fabricator has a mix of brands, the same data can be collected and the quality can be raised across the organisation,” Saunders explains.

“We are currently setting the system up on a robot fitted with the ESAB Aristo 500ix,” he adds. “And on the industrial side, we have a system on trial at Howden and we are installing trial systems at fabrication facilities such as K5 Heavy Engineering; power and piping specialist, Steinmüller; and National Stainless Steel Centre,” he informs African Fusion.

“It’s a new system being rigorously tested and we are positive customers will see this as a successful tool in their welding and cutting shops. Via efficiency and productivity gains, the investment is well worth it,” Saunders concludes.

A case study from ADR Group

WeldCloud Productivity has helped an axle supplier in the agricultural industry to improve weld productivity at its facility in Poland by 500-hours every month. This because WeldCloud’s analytics functions have enabled quick identification of productivity bottlenecks and reduced non-value-added time to an average of only 26 minutes per shift, per station. These two factors alone have justified the company’s investment in ESAB’s WeldCloud welding solutions.

ADR specialises in the manufacturing of braked axles, suspensions and bogies – fully assembled axles ready to be fitted – for leading heavy trailer and agricultural machinery manufacturers. With headquarters in Uboldo, Italy, the ADR Group has twelve plants with locations around the world and a rich history of R&D, customer collaboration, and a strong after-sales service culture.

The company’s facility in Poland is an early adopter of WeldCloud online data management and analytics tools.

In addition to online data management solutions, ADR wanted one global provider that could support it in every country with a broad portfolio that included equipment, filler metals, robotics and value-added engineering services. Long term, ADR also wanted to enhance its documentation and traceability functions; providing customers with added confidence in the quality of its products.

The ADR Polska S.A. production facility in Zagórz, Poland, now has a completely integrated ESAB system featuring 30 AristoMig 5000iw inverter-based welding systems with embedded WeldCloud communication modules.

WeldCloud helped ADR Group to compare operator-reported welding performance with the actual production data captured in real time directly from the welding plant. “The analytic capabilities of WeldCloud helped us evaluate our heavy production processes. After the first year of monitoring, we achieved a 19% reduction in downtime by optimising our welding practices,” says Daniele Radrizzani, ADR Group plant manager and member of the ADR Board.

WeldCloud productivity benefits include improved productivity, faster responsiveness, easy deployment and investment justification.

Improved productivity

By identifying and eliminating waste, ADR gained an additional 500 hours of productivity per month. Most welding stations at ADR Polska feature a robotic welding cell with an operator that manually loads parts into a jig, makes some of the welds and loads/unloads the robot. “We talked to the operators to identify the root cause of problems,” says Paolo Morandi, Manufacturing Engineer, ADR.

“We told the welders that WeldCloud supports them and is not against them. If the productivity is not there, it means we need to improve our production planning, material preparation and part flow, equip each station with better jigs and provide more tools, such as for cleaning,” he adds.

Faster responsiveness

“Thanks to WeldCloud, I can monitor the work of each welding station on a daily basis,” says Jacek Nowacki, Production Director at ADR Polska. “I can also better control the non-value-added time after the shift starts, before the shift ends and around breaks.”

By using WeldCloud Productivity, ADR improved the arc-factor of its robots and operators, increasing axle production without adding more operators. “With WeldCloud, I can control production in real time and react quickly to unjustified interruptions at work,” Nowacki says.

Arc-factor reports generated by WeldCloud Productivity prove that low-spatter wires and processes reduce downtime for cleaning.

Easy deployment

WeldCloud is easy to deploy from a technical perspective because the ESAB Aristo Mig units connect to the plant’s Wi-Fi system. ESAB provided an on-site firmware updated on the Aristo Mig inverters and trained ADR’s IT personnel on how to remotely connect from their laptops.

Due to Covid, Nowacki started in his role without in-person training on how to use the WeldCloud Productivity application. After a brief tutorial, he found the application intuitive and was quickly able to obtain all the benefits.

Investment justification

ADR invested in high-performance, high-productivity Aristo MIG power sources and wire feeder systems, as well as premium OK Autrod 12.51 welding wire. “WeldCloud helps us to optimise our investment by opening the door behind each welding cell. With greater visibility, we can gain the full productivity benefits of our equipment,” says Radrizzani.

As a next step, he adds, ADR will unlock more efficiency by using the weld parameter documentation and part traceability functions of WeldCloud.

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