African Fusion November 2018

Shield-Bright stainless steel cored wires

T he Shield-Bright series of stainless cored wires are rutile types with excellent weldability on conventional non-pulsing power sources under Ar/ CO 2 shielding gas, but weldability is also goodwhen using pure CO 2 for shielding. Always operating in the smooth spray arc mode, these stainless welding wires are welder-friendly and produce very low spatter levels. The slag is self-lifting and easily detached, leaving behind a clean flat weld surface with a good penetration and very smooth wetting onto the plate edges. There are two series of wires. The all-positional Shield-Bright wires have a fast freezing slag to keep the weld metal in place. This enables deposition rates in positional welding that can- not be equalled by stick electrodes or solid wires. Typical positional welding defects, such as lack of fusion and slag inclusions are avoided due to the spray arc operation. The Shield-Bright X-tra range is opti- mised for downhandandhorizontal/ver- tical filletwelding, havinga slow freezing fluid slag to allow high travel speeds. A great advantage lies in the ease of use of the Shield-Bright and Shield-Bright X-tra wires, which can be welded using simple non-pulsing power sources and parameter settings. They can be welded using standard Ar/15-25% CO 2 mixed-gas, while also producing the low-carbon stainlessweld metal in pure CO 2 . The superb ‘rutile’ weld appearance is another favourable aspect. Welds are flat to concavewith positive penetration andexcellentwetting. This is particularly beneficial in areas with high cosmetic or corrosion requirements such as the food processing and paper and pulp industries. Light brushing is normally sufficient to obtain a clean weld. Unlike solid wires, no silica islands are pro- duced, therefore saving timeon cleaning the welds. Welds have an excellent x-ray qual- ity. One-sided root runs in open joints can be welded onto ceramic weldmetal backing supports at high speeds. “Shield-Bright cored wire, like all ESABproducts, is backedbyour commit- ment to superior customer service and support. Our skilled customer service department is prepared to quickly an- swer any questions, address problems, and help with the maintenance and

upgrading of your machines. And our products are backedwith themost com- prehensive warranty in the business,” says ESAB South Africa’s MD, Chris Eibl. “With ESAB, customers can be sure they are purchasing products that will meet their needs today and in the fu- ture,” Eibl concludes. www.esab.edx.co.za Deposition rate from Shield-Bright cored wires in positional welding outperforms MMA electrodes and solid wires.

The fabricated metal landscape I ncreasing manufacturing efficiency means finding the right balancebetween supply and demand, optimising capacity, improving throughput, streamlining pro- cesses, cutting costs and reducing waste. Fabrication companies that meet and even predict their customers’ needs are sure to become an invaluable aid to their success andwill succeedwhere others fail. For shops that predominantly service local manufacturing industries with specialised requirements or one-off jobs, simplicity in the management systems used is essential for success. The ideal ERP solutionwill allowsuch fabricators to: • Quote quickly and accurately: Cus- tomers often need same-day jobs and so quoted turnaround time is short and must be accurate or it will affect profitability.

struction, aerospace, forestry, oil and gas, and they may have a custom fabrication department that services individual cus- tomers. The primary business, however, is servicing the needs of a specific industry; therefore more sophisticated require- ments from the ERP solution are needed to facilitate, for example: • Accurate quoting: Having larger con- tracts, fabricators need the quote to be complete and accurate up front in order to maintain profitability. • Creating BOMs (bills of materials)/ Jobs based on customer CAD draw- ings: It is a time-consuming task to capture complicated CAD details into BOMs for input onto an ERP. Syspro’s CADTalk is the easiest and quickest way to transfer engineering CAD data directly into the Syspro ERP, so more time can be spent building and less time entering data. Profitability for fabrication operations is highly dependent onmaterial availability and the production processes, compli- ance and quality. More often than not, fabrications have to adhere to standards stipulatedby the particular industry being served – and in industries such as Aero- space and defence, the requirements can be particularly stringent. Heat tracking and the ability to do quickmock recalls for compliance are im- portant. An operation’s ability to provide documentation that validates inspections throughout the manufacturing process and meets quality specifications with the final product is also often needed. No company can operate efficiently and competitively without some form of computer automation. A tailor made modular, scalability and flexible ERP solu- tion from SYSPRO can deliver a solution for managing any fabrication business, regardless of the size of the organisation and the operational complexities. za.syspro.com

• Increase profitability: Real-time in- sight into material and labour usage – since small fabrication shops may not have repeat orders from the same customer – help to ensure each job is profitable, which is an imperative for the bottom line. • Ad-hoc scheduling andCTP (capable- to-promise): Customers may walk in with a rush job that needs to be completed the same day. Knowing if the existing deadlines can be met and how the new job impacts other work is invaluable. Using a CTP system allows a balance between what you can pro- duce and what customers and clients are requesting to be evaluated. • Sub-contract with confidence: Be- cause this is a capital-intensive indus- try, many custom metal fabricators are not big enough to own specialty machinery, thus have to rely on sub- contracting to provide a ‘full’ service/ end result for their customers (coating, specialised cutting, etc). Project fabricators might specialise in servicing a specific industry such as con-

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November 2018

AFRICAN FUSION