Standardization and repeatability have become popular buzz-words in the welding industry as it continues to adapt to lean business models. These practices have focused in part on establishing protocols that create uniformity of quality and appearance for every product that leaves the shop, regardless of who welded it or when it was welded.

Sometimes, however, there is no amount of standardization that can overcome the “human element.”

When the City of Phoenix decided to build light-rail system terminals, it selected a design that consisted of exposed steel columns for the canopies under which riders would wait for trains. The columns were made of two 4-in. × 6-in. rectangular tubes that have been “sandwiched” between plate steel and connected by another length of plate steel (see photo).

Because they are exposed, the columns called for high quality and visually pleasing welds.

The welding sub-contractor initially hired for the project failed to meet the city's quality and uniformity requirements.

Given the chance to take over the job, Arizona-based Skyline Steel knew from the start that the only way it could meet the job's demands would be through automation — technology the shop had not use before.

However, Skyline Steel found help from Jim Kelley and Joel Ashmore, who work for Praxair, and used Tri-Mark Metalloy 76 welding wire from Hobart Brothers, Miller Electric's Dimension 1000 power source, and Centerfire consumables from Bernard to meet Phoenix's stringent demands. Also, the shop was able to double its anticipated profit, and position itself to expand their business into new markets.

From Humble Beginnings

Skyline has prided itself on providing a consistent and high-quality product at a reasonable price since its beginnings as a carport fabricator in 1983.

It has grown into structural and other markets to become a $35 million/year company today. Rick Dancer, president of the company, bought it in 1988, when it was a $250,000/year enterprise.

Dancer has led the shop to take on new challenges and face new risks.

A New Challenge

The rising popularity of exposed architectural steel has given rise to several new welding challenges.

The City of Phoenix's Valley Metro transit authority wanted every detail of the canopies it chose for its light-rail lines to be aesthetically pleasing, right down to the welds.

The original welding sub-contractor provided submerged arc welds that did not adequately penetrate the joints and semi-automatic welds that had numerous inconsistencies.

The project called for a 3/8-in. × 4-in × 6-in. rectangular tube to be sandwiched between two 1/2-in. × 8-in. wide plates. Then, two of those sandwiches would be linked by a 6-in. plate.

Once assembled, four canopy arms were added before the assembly was painted and installed in the light-rail terminals (see photo).

The tricky part was that they could not grind the welds, and the welds needed to be completely uniform, without any starts and stops, for lengths to 30 ft. All together, the project required 850 canopies with a total of over 8.5 miles of symmetrical, continuous welds. Plus, the team had less than three months to go from testing and sample evaluation to full-scale production.

When Phoenix's city planners decided that the welds on the first set of canopies were not good enough, the project's general contractor, Archer Western, turned to Skyline Steel.

“Archer Western called us because they needed a shop that was certified by the city of Phoenix,” Dancer said. “Their dilemma was that they needed thousands of linear feet of continuous flat welds. We knew right away that we would need to automate the process to avoid any discontinuities in the welds.”

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