Intelligent Robotic Fabrication with Northwest Steel Fab

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Northwest Steel Fab is embracing the robotic technology ripple and would like to share with you some of their smart factory ideas. Learn how you can start making your shop more automated today!

Northwest Steel Fab is known for its tight tolerance fabrication.

When it comes to trash racks, dams, hydroelectric, they're big, bulky, and they have to be to a certain dimension. And that is what's created our company, our expertise.

Shop layout starts on one end with automation. One side drills for bridges that we can't have heat on. And the other side is robotic plasma machines, and it feeds through.

And the next step is fitting and welding. One side is the PeddiAssembler, followed by more fitters, more welders, then comes paint.

Then following paint, shipping. So we have a layout of a shop, the design, for one thing in mind is fast track and being very productive.

Touching the steel as least amount of times as possible. If you touch it in this business, it costs you money. It's all about the way that you handle your material. And gosh, if you don't have to touch it, don't touch it. You make some money.

We started with the drill line and the big saw out there, the Peddinghaus. I think we've got a 52 inch double miter saw. That's the first thing we got set up.

And we put those two things, they're working in concert together, and then we got the PeddiWriter. And then it just takes all the guesswork out of it.

It's telling the guys where to put it. It's got the lines to line up the holes. It's just a no-brainer. I was amazed at what that did.

And then, of course, now we've moved on to the PeddiAssembler. That baby's going to be hard to beat.

We're always looking for a workforce. We're always looking for quality welders and fitters. It's easier to fill the gap of welders.

Welders are people who want to weld, people are willing to weld. But people who can interpret drawings and be able to lay it out correct and lay it out precise is rare. And it's becoming more rare.

We see the same need, the workforce the quality. To have a machine constantly produce quality beams, channels, tubes is a real asset. And it can work 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The PeddiAssembler gives us the opportunity to fit beams, put them in a stack and pile, and give them to the welders. And while they're welding, we're able to continue to pre-assemble beams that are right on the number.

Everything's right where it should be. We tack them up and get them off and allows welders to weld them up. And the welders love that.

Training went seamlessly. They call it ProFit. Very simple to learn, very easy. We caught on right away.

Once the machine was calibrated-- which was one day, I believe, after it was up and running--it hasn't been calibrated again.

It's probably the coolest software I've ever seen in my life. It's very easy to operate.

The gal that we trained to program it has no structural steel background. She's never struck an arc, and she's welding more than anybody out there. And she's only walked through the shop a couple times. Pretty unique.

Fortunately, we're probably one of the most advanced shops anywhere in this region as far as our automated equipment.

We want to be a smart factory. We want to make everything as automated as possible. So this is just the beginning of the storm of our automation and what's coming next.