The expanded service, repair and calibration workshop at Bolt and Engineering Distributors’ new national distribution hub in Wadeville highlights the B.E.D. Group’s commitment to technical excellence and customer service. African Fusion meets the service team and talks to Group Welding and Cutting Division Manager, Craig Bister, and Welding Repair Centre Manager, Mario Calado.
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The new Fronius 2.0 calibration system enables welding machines to be rapidly calibrated and returned into service. The service can also be offered on GYS machines and machines from most other suppliers.
B.E.D.’s national distribution centre was set up in August 2024 in a fully renovated building in Wadeville, with a focus on improving logistical flow and accommodating the Group’s growth. As well as housing the distribution warehouse and logistics centre, the facility includes a boardroom, offices for the national product managers, and an expanded B.E.D. welding service, repair and equipment calibration centre.
“While we have had a welding repair workshop ever since we first took on the Fronius brand, we have reinvested in this new and expanded facility to meet our growing need for service and support for our key welding and cutting brands: Fronius and GYS welding machines, and Messer and Hypertherm plasma cutters,” says Craig Bister, Group Welding and Cutting Division Manager, adding that other brands of welding and plasma cutting equipment can also be accommodated.
“In addition, we represent the Reeflex brand in South Africa, and while we can do repairs for our key customers, these are manufactured locally, so we do not do the warranty work and there is no need for us to hold spares,” he adds.
Rapid assessment, quotation and turnaround
“The service work comes mostly from our 11 nationwide branches, and they will typically have customers who use several different brands,” Bister suggests. “For the machine brands we handle – that are not limited to our partner brands – we will strip the machine down upon arrival, and assess it to identify the faults, before putting together a quotation for the repair, free of charge! All warranties are also honoured by the repair centre.
Our proactive approach to stockholding is key to rapid delivery times and for our brands, we have invested in spares stock and management systems to ensure that we can get a customer’s welding equipment back in service quickly. We have Fronius and GYS control and power boards on our shelves, along with a full complement of the typical electronic components used in these and other welding machines. This enables us to quote for a repair within 48 hours of receiving a machine, and if the quote is accepted, our turnaround target is another 48 hours,” Bister tells AF.
B.E.D.’s Wadeville welding service, repair and calibration centre – and the same facility at its branch in Cape Town – are both certified by the B.E.D. Group’s international welding partners, including Fronius and Hypertherm.
The workshop is also supported by four fully equipped mobile demonstration and assessment vehicles, which enable B.E.D. to deliver on-site assessments, training and welding support services throughout the country. “We can service and repair a wide range of welding machines – including robotic and semi-automated systems – and critical spare parts such as IGBTs (Insulated-Gate Bipolar Transistors) are always available,” he adds, pointing out that typically, B.E.D. assists customers experiencing wear-related faults, electronic component failure, calibration drift and issues linked to inconsistent weld quality. With the rise of semi-automated systems and demand for machine uptime, B.E.D. is also often requested to repair circuit boards, replace IGBTs or carry out full refurbishments.
The Fronius 2.0 calibration system
To enhance the calibration services for B.E.D. customers and assist them in meeting ISO 3834, EN/IEC 60974-14 and SANS 347 compliance standards, the company has invested in a state-of-the-art Fronius 2.0 calibration system. Fabricators of safety-critical structures such as pressure vessels for rail and road vehicles need to achieve consistent weld quality. They need to know that the actual welding voltage, current and wire-feed speed delivered by their welding equipment is always the same as the meter readings. Regular welding equipment validation and calibration ensure that this is the case.
“We have bought a new Fronius 2.0 calibration system to enable us to rapidly calibrate and return a welding machine into service. This service can also be offered on any other welding machine brand, including GYS machines and machines from other suppliers,” says Bister.
In the B.E.D. service, repair and calibration workshop, Mario Calado, Welding Repair Centre Manager, is on hand to demonstrate the calibration process. He is assisted by experienced Kobus van Dyk, Instrumentation Technician, and apprentice in training, Dylan Benade.
At the starting point, Calado says: “We always need to make sure that the machine is safe. So we do an insulation test to check that the contacts are isolated from each other. If a welder touches a machine and gets a shock, it is a clear sign that something live is touching where it should not,” he says.
For recent Fronius machine models, the firmware of the machine is always updated, so that any new features and improvements can be included. Then calibration of a machine can begin.
The welding machine and the Fronius 2.0 calibration system are connected via the SpeedNet OPTi control cable and the welding power and earth cables. After adding some customer details, the Fronius 2.0 calibration system puts a range of welding loads onto the power source and instructs the machine to ‘weld’ at different currents and voltage levels. “For Fronius machines, the protocols are automatically set for each model, so for this calibration, we start at 400 A and 36 V, and it will then step down in five 90 A steps to 40 A and 10 V.
“The system can offer standard (within 2.5%) and precision (within 1.0%) accuracy, and if the welding machine can deliver the parameters within the ranges requested, then the metering will be automatically calibrated to match the actual currents and voltages within the selected range. A certificate is then provided to the customer, which verifies the machine accuracy,” Calado explains.
On older Fronius power sources and non-Fronius brands, the Fronius 2.0 calibration system is not able to do calibration and verification automatically, but it does have a manual option. The B.E.D. technician sets each recommended current and voltage setting on the welding machine and enters these into the system. The Fronius 2.0 Calibration system will then feed back the actual measurements, one by one, and highlight ‘OK’ or ‘not OK’, with the measured difference. If the dials or digital meters need to be adjusted, however, this has to be done manually before retesting.
By offering optional professional calibration services as part of their repair process, B.E.D. helps fabricators to keep their welders safe while ensuring they can achieve consistent weld quality that meets client requirements. “This is a value-adding way of improving our customers’ welding productivity – and of extending the useful life of their welding assets. By maintaining their welding machines, cleaning them regularly, blowing out the iron filings dust, and sending them in to us for an annual status check and calibration, fabricators can reduce downtime and rework, while helping welders to produce better quality work,” concludes Craig Bister.