Search Video Gallery

Channel: Customers

Amidst the high and low cycles of the steel construction market, one thing that has remained constant and growing within the United States is the industry-wide shortage of skilled workers. In 2010, the American Welding Society (AWS) reported a shortage of 200,000 welders in the U.S. and projects by 2026 that number will double at 372,000. AWS further noted approximately 500,000 skilled welders are, on average, in their mid-50s and will soon retire at a more rapid rate than replacements can fill the vacancies. Patrick Schueck, President of Lexicon, Inc., and the team at Prospect Steel solved their labor shortage issue with an investment in automated robotic welding technology distributed by Peddinghaus. They are the first fabrication firm within the United States to introduce a groundbreaking robotic steel beam assembler into their Little Rock, Arkansas facility.

Prospect Steel specializes in heavy industrial fabrication, steel erection, mechanical equipment setting, and fabrication of platework.

The company was founded 50 years ago. We're working on our 50th year.

My father, Tom Schuek, started the company with $800 in the bank and a pregnant wife.

One of my favorite projects has been the Ivanpah solar plant. It's the world's largest solar plant.

And what it is is a 470 foot tower with a boiler at the top. We had 36 inch pipe columns with inch and a half-thick wall. The project was pretty remarkable to watch it get built. We had three towers.

We have done a tremendous amount of work in the steel mill industry. Any time that I know that our company is working to push the steel mill industry further in the United States, it really makes me feel good.

At Prospect Steel, our fabrication division, prior to purchasing the Zeman, was in a severe shortage of labor.

We had plenty of shop capacity from a standpoint of space and equipment, but we were lacking our ability in man hours to produce the welding and the fitting and the painting required to have a successful project. So it was really limiting our ability to be a force in the marketplace.

By purchasing the Zeman, we were capable of replacing man hours that we had lost by not being able to find qualified fitters and welders in our industry.

Zeman gives us another approach to be able to solve the huge problem in the steel fabrication business of finding labor.

Prospect Steel settled on a Zeman SBA Compact Plus system, as it was the best fit in our shop, as far as size and scope went. But we also felt like for the price, the payback was the fastest.

The Zeman acquisition has allowed us to further advance what we think is cutting-edge, and that is taking welding information and fit-up information from the model directly to our shop floor.

It has allowed us to increase our productivity, decrease fit-up errors, and in the end, has allowed us to create a better product for our customer and so save money.

Prospect Steel is very proud to be involved with this first system in the United States with the Zeman Robotic Assembly.

We continue to enjoy our partnership that we have with Peddinghaus, and being involved with Peddinghaus and Zeman, we're very proud.

When we run the machine consistently, we're seeing huge reductions in man hours worked per piece.

What we're also finding is not only is the Zeman Compact Plus great for full service fabrication, welding and everything, but it really works in our system just as a fitting robot. So rather than just fitting and welding, we're able to utilize the fitting services of the robot, get the pieces out of the machine, get them back on the bucks and let our welders do the welding, which allows us to work more, generate more man hours, and allows us to cover more overhead.

I think any time you put a group of professionals together--and we're all kind of held in the ring together by Peddinghaus.

And we work together in a collaborative way. We're able to come up with real solutions to real problems. That's the definition of success.

Garbe Iron Works Knows How To Maximize Shop Floorspace

Watch

Securing Steel Success at American Structural Metals

Watch

Thomas Steel Doubles Shop Output with Peddinghaus

Watch

Fast Track Fabrication at Performance Solutions

Watch

Finding the Perfect Fabricator at DyMark Industries

Watch

Turnkey Commercial Construction Solutions at Calder Stewart

Watch

Intelligent Robotic Fabrication with Northwest Steel Fab

Watch

John Jones Steel Blasts Production Timetables

Watch

Robotic Welding Meets Steel Plate Processing at Alpha Iron

Watch

Structural Steel Fabricator Eliminates Outsourcing | Capone Iro...

Watch

Increasing Steel Shop Throughput with Caunton Engineering

Watch

Heavy Steel Plate Production with B&B Iron Works Inc.

Watch

Clean Production with the PeddiBlast at Acier Select

Watch

Production, Profit and Peddinghaus CNC at JPW Companies, Inc.

Watch

Bevelling 4" Thick Plate with AJAX in Mexico City

Watch

Steel for Space Travel at NAFCO

Watch

Renewable Energy Powers South Africa Through LEMCO

Watch

Winning National Steel Awards at SteelStacks with Levan Associa...

Watch

Cooper Steel Hits a Home Run in Nashville

Watch

Building the Tallest Steel Headgear for the Mining Industry wit...

Watch

LeJeune Steel Scores Big with the Minnesota Vikings Stadium

Watch

Saving Boston's Bridge, Ocean Machinery and AISC - Peddi-TV - S...

Watch

My Peddinghaus Story - Severfield (UK) Ltd.

Watch

My Peddinghaus Story - Hi-Spec Engineering - Bagenalstown Co. C...

Watch

My Peddinghaus Story - Severfield plc - Enniskillen, Northern I...

Watch

My Peddinghaus Story - Nashville Fabrication - Nashville, TN -...

Watch

My Peddinghaus Story - W.F. Welding - Nisku, Alberta - CA

Watch

My Peddinghaus Story - SL Chasse Steel - Hudson, NH - USA

Watch

My Peddinghaus Story - PennFab, Inc. - Bensalem, PA - USA

Watch

My Peddinghaus Story - Al Reyami Group - Dubai - UAE

Watch

My Peddinghaus Story - Rodgers Metal Craft, Inc. - Fortson, GA...

Watch

My Peddinghaus Story - Heisco - Shuaiba - Kuwait

Watch

Steel Fabrication for the Oil & Gas Industry with New Industrie...

Watch

My Peddinghaus Story - SteelFab - Charlotte, North Carolina, US...

Watch

My Peddinghaus Story - Owen Steel Company - South Carolina, USA

Watch

My Peddinghaus Story - Killelea Structural Steelwork - Crawshaw...

Watch

My Peddinghaus Story - ACL Steel Ltd. - Kitchener, ON - Canada

Watch

Strong and Reliable Fabrication Machinery at Steel Service Corp...

Watch

Europe's Steel Fabrication Gets Competitive with Butzkies Stahl...

Watch

My Peddinghaus Story - Laurel Machine Company - Mt. Braddock, P...

Watch

Meeting Deadlines With Modern Structural Steel Technology at JT...

Watch

My Peddinghaus Story - GEM Buildings - Brigham City, Utah - USA

Watch

My Peddinghaus Story - Grayson Engineering - Auckland, New Zeal...

Watch

Enter Today for a Chance to Win FREE Machinery

Gift cards and other Peddinghaus merchandise included

Current Giveaway

46331 mobile

WINNER

46331

WINNER

Normal text message rates apply. Text “STOP” to opt out. Text “HELP” for help. Up to 3 msgs / month. Terms ‌h‌t‌t‌p‌s‌:‌/‌/‌w‌w‌w‌.‌p‌e‌d‌d‌i‌n‌g‌h‌a‌u‌s‌.‌c‌o‌m‌/‌t‌e‌r‌m‌s‌/‌1‌

Powerful Drill Lines To Get The Job Done Right

We Build The Strongest Machines

Powerful Plate Processors To Get The Job Done Right

We Build The Strongest Machines

Powerful Angle Lines To Get The Job Done Right

We Build The Strongest Machines

Powerful Thermal Cutting To Get The Job Done Right

We Build The Strongest Machines

Powerful Robotic Welding To Get The Job Done Right

We Build The Strongest Machines

Powerful Layout Marking To Get The Job Done Right

We Build The Strongest Machines

Powerful Band Saws To Get The Job Done Right

We Build The Strongest Machines

Powerful Material Handling To Get The Job Done Right

We Build The Strongest Machines

Powerful Shot Blasters To Get The Job Done Right

We Build The Strongest Machines

Powerful Ironworkers To Get The Job Done Right

We Build The Strongest Machines

Get Access to the Most Powerful Company in the Steel Industry

Sales Expert

Get Support

Order Parts