Spot on!

By Secal Ltd
schedule28th Jul 16

Secal currently has four spot and projection welding machines. But as demand for this operation is growing and customer requirements become more demanding, Secal have investigated how to leverage latest technology to get the best results.

Secal has a large customer in the retail sector where we deliver shelving direct to site. An extremely important element of shelves for the retail sector is safety; in an environment where the public has access to shelves of stock it is paramount that they are protected from failing shelves and potential injury from falling product. The shelves have stiffeners fabricated (spot welded) to the underside for strength and they must be able to withstand the loads applied to ensure that the public are protected. Our challenge is to achieve zero defects in the spot welding process for two reasons: safety and protecting the public from injury, and avoiding a costly product recall, both for Secal and its customers.

 To produce zero defects Secal has recently purchased a 4 Head Multi Spot Welding Machine, having 4 heads and working in 2 cycles to improve output, this in turn improves our competitiveness. We also take every opportunity to improve productivity, efficiency and quality, all of which directly, or indirectly impacts our customers. To mitigate the risk of costly product recall from failed spot welds, we use a weld monitoring tool, a device that monitors current to ensure that the integrity of spot welds applied are within acceptable parameters and fit for purpose. Weld monitoring prevents issues with poor spot welds giving us confidence in integrity of the weld, improving quality, repeatability, and in turn ensuring confidence and customer satisfaction.

 Secal is also investing in a 125KVA Projection Welder, this will predominantly be utilised for our off highway / yellow goods sector customers. The system projection welds nuts or studs to panels and has a built in PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) linked directly to the weld timer. This means we have the capability to select the number of nuts per part with a counter check of number of nuts per batch of parts. The PLC can also alert the user if a weld has failed or passed, if the nut or stud is the correct size, the correct orientation or even if the nut or stud is not present. For complete confidence with the machine it includes a POKA YOKE facility ‘nut verification system’ which is another control to ensure part conformance.

 In line with the ‘core kit’ we employ support processes to aid in all the above. Personnel are monitored with a skills matrix and continually reviewed, tools such as Statistical Process Control have been introduced to monitor output enabling ‘real time’ decision making when manufacturing in bulk. Standard Operating Procedures are used as a control measure and as training aids. In the event of an issue quality tools such as 8 Discipline with supporting Fault Tree Analysis and 5 Why methodologies are utilised to drill down to root cause, this then enables fact based decisions leading to sustainable solutions to problems.

 It is part of Secal’s strategy to bring processes in-house and to continually invest in latest technology and world-class processes. If you would like to learn more please get in touch.