In today's highly competitive industrial manufacturing environment, it's crucial to run a cost efficient, reliable, and productive fabrication line that yields durable, rugged, high-quality products.
At Joy Mining Machinery, a global leader in the development, manufacture, distribution, and service of underground mining machinery for more than 90 years, the desire to continue to achieve this goal drove the company to upgrade the welding equipment at its Franklin, PA facility.
Joy Mining Franklin has earned a reputation for quality and durability of its products. All Joy Mining products are distributed and supported by the company's 46 facilities, located in 8 countries around the world – Australia, India, China, Poland, Russia, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Welding is an essential step in the Franklin facility's production of longwall and continuous miner systems used for the underground extraction of coal and other bedded materials, such as salt, potash, gypsum, and oil shale. The company recently moved a portion of its semi-automatic welding systems to automated GMAW (MIG) welding for the bit block and pedestal assemblies produced at the Franklin plant. These assemblies hold the massive, custom bits that drill into the rock surfaces in underground mines.
The Welding Process
According to Craig Cerminara, A & R welding engineer at Joy Franklin, the company sought to move 98% of the bit block-to-pedestal welding activities to an automated system from semi-automatic MIG welding.
At this station, workers attach bit blocks made from treated, air-hardenable steel to a carbon-steel pedestal via semi-automatic MIG welding. One welder can fabricate between 8 and 10 bit blocks in an 8-hour shift. Each of the plant's 3 shifts have 6 to 8 welders at the bit block station, welding the assemblies and adjusting the angle radius of the block, depending on the customer's specifications. Joy Mining management knew it was time to streamline the process while increasing the production rate.
"All companies face challenges in today's economy, especially those in heavy manufacturing. Obviously we were looking at as many different solutions as possible to make necessary process improvements. First and foremost, we were seeking to increase our productivity and reduce costs, while maintaining quality manufacturing," Cerminara notes. "Automation was one option that really stood out to allow us to introduce a more modern solution to our bit block-to-pedestal welding process. We weld a great number of these parts, and they lend themselves well to automation, so we decided to seek a custom solution to help us achieve this."
Detailed Metrics and Evaluation
To ensure that the company would find the right integrator to match its automated welding needs, Cerminara and his team put together a detailed evaluation system to compare manufacturers, their products, and their services, evaluating each supplier's offerings and abilities on 32 different metrics.
"The metrics were designed to measure and compare each of the integrators against one another for all of the services and specialties we thought would be important to support Joy as a company," Cerminara explains, noting that some of the key metrics included the following:
Demonstrated ability to provide "complete support" for the automated system 24/7 technical support Overall integration of the cell Cost of the system Weld quality.
"Many integrators we were considering scored very well on all of the metrics, but in the end, Lincoln Electric's Automation Division scored the highest and was the best fit for what we wanted to do here at Joy Mining," Cerminara notes.
Cerminara says Lincoln Electric fared well in a number of the metrics. He cites such factors as accurate cycle time estimates, overall system cost, and willingness to provide ongoing support for the custom system after installation as 3 leading reasons why Lincoln Electric won the contract. But other influences also figured prominently into the decision.
Beyond internal process improvements and savings, Joy Mining also wanted to remain dedicated to providing the global mining industry with products that would hold up to harsh underground environments and heavy use – anywhere on the map.
"When we were making our decision on which automated system to use, we also took into account the global reach of the supplier we selected," Cerminara says. "Lincoln Electric's ability to provide support around the world was another contributing factor."
In addition, Joy Mining Franklin has been a 100% Lincoln Electric shop since 1998. Welding stations throughout the plant feature such multi-process Lincoln Electric welders as the Idealarc® DC-600, Idealarc® DC-655, and Invertec® V350-PRO, LN-10, and DH-10 (dual head) semi-automatic wire feeders, advanced process Power Wave® 455M power sources as well as Precision TIG® 275 stick/TIG welders for general welding and fabrication of other mining equipment components.
The shop also uses a pre-engineered automated system from Lincoln Electric to perform etching of serial numbers and other alpha-numeric information on various parts manufactured at the plant. Prior experience with this system helped Cerminara become familiar with the capabilities Lincoln Electric could provide when offering a custom automation solution.
"We wanted an integrator that would take responsibility for all aspects of the system, not just the robot," Cerminara explained. "We already had a history with Lincoln Electric welding systems and knew the company would step up in any situation and take care of any challenges and necessary troubleshooting."
System Specification
After reviewing the results of their metric evaluation, Cerminara and his team decided to replace 9 semi-automatic Lincoln Electric Idealarc® DC-655/LN-10 stations used for bit block-to-pedestal assemblies and install 2 automated welding stations in their place. The custom-designed solutions feature Power Wave® 455M high performance, inverted-based welding power sources, FANUC ARC Mate® 100iC robotic arms, and Harris® Preheat Torch systems and temperature-sensing devices. The systems use Lincoln Electric SuperArc® L-56 premium mild steel MIG wire in 0.045 (1.1 mm) in. diameter.
The preheat torch and temperature-sensing devices were important features. During the fabrication process for the bit block assembly, the part must be heated to 300°F (149°C) but cannot exceed 500°F (260°C), so it is necessary to check the temperatures before welding and also during the weld cycle to ensure a quality, durable weldment.
"This configuration is unique to the application," notes Marty Siddall, the Lincoln Electric technical sales representative and automation specialist who assisted Joy Franklin in developing its custom welding solution. "The entire process is fully automated and regulated."
Process Improvements
Once the automation system started making production welds, Cerminara and his team were able to track notable changes in productivity. To date, the conversion to automated welding has resulted in an 8% increase in bit block-to-pedestal assembly productivity. Additionally, it has saved more than 12,000 hours of work annually.
"We can weld the same number of assemblies with one operator running both stations per shift. In the past we needed between 6 and 8 welders to manually produce the same number of parts. With automation, we need only 3 operators per day vs the 18 to 24 required in the past," Cerminara says. "Automation has made the difference we thought it would. When you look at the productivity increase, the return on investment and other numbers, all of those metrics have been met or exceeded with the installation of the automation equipment. Overall, the results have been spectacular."
Beyond the obvious boost in productivity and related cost savings, Cerminara also cites the support that Lincoln Electric provided both during the planning, installation, and transition to the new system and on a day-to-day basis now that the system is up and running as a valuable benefit of the partnership. This support is something the company is keeping in mind as it plans future expansion into automated welding in other areas of the manufacturing process.
"We have been extremely happy with the depth of ongoing support of both the sales team and the project lead," Cerminara says. "As we go forward with additional automation solutions, we're confident that we'll continue to identify opportunities for process improvements and are implementing them as time permits. It has been a best-in-class experience."
