TIW Reprint For Pdf
User Manual: TIW
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Textile Industrial Welding, Inc. Applies 25 Years Of Experience To Large Fabrication Specials 3700 ATC Operator Wayne Tyler supports a typical part fabricated on the Whitney. Wayne enjoys the addition to T.I.W., “If they start running it twenty-four hours a day—that’ll be me twenty-four hours a day.” Textile Industrial Welding, Inc. Applies 25 Years of Experience To Large Fabrication Specials T he shipping yard of Textile Industrial Welding in Dalton, Georgia, never looks the same. The products—always different—have two things in common. They are constructed of metal fabrications and they are very LARGE. What started out 25 years ago as a company dedicated to producing carpet dyeing and finishing equipment now builds for a broad mix of industries. Finished pieces being prepared for shipment from T.I.W. might include water and air purification equipment, non-pressure tanks for the chemical and glue industries, material handling systems, asphalt recycling equipment, or food industry machines to extract oil from soybeans, coat candy, or help brew one of America’s most popular thirst quenching beverages. James (Jimmy) W. McMullen, founded T.I.W. in 1971, building on experience gained by constructing dye vats for Masterpiece Finishing Co. which still thrives today in Dalton, Georgia. 25 Years of Growth T.I.W.’s first employee was Jimmy’s brother-in-law Reed Gee, who serves as one of the top lead men today. The second was his wife, JoAnn, who functions as the company’s secretary and treasurer. A strong employee base of 58, 16 in engineering and the office and 42 in the shop, now serve T.I.W.’s diverse customer base. “We started in 1972 fabricating solely for the carpet industry, but when construction declined, so did the carpet industry,” says JoAnn. “We quickly learned that you can’t put all your eggs in one basket.” That kind of thinking has taken T.I.W. into many industries that need large, customized metal products. “All of our work is custom order. We do not have stock. We do not have inventory. There has to be a special application on everything we build. So it’s really quite challenging,” says JoAnn. T.I.W. has a full engineering department to coordinate designs with their customers and to handle programming for their extensive collection of CNC machines. Advanced Service and Equipment To provide economical, quality service, T.I.W. continually upgrades and adds to the machines in their shop. A CNC burn table cuts fabricated parts in a variety of shapes and sizes from plate up to two inches thick. The Aronson Manipulator with a Linde Submergible Arc welding head is used for automatic girth and longitudinal seams on extremely long, large diameter vessels. Dross-free parts cut with the 3700 ATC’s TRUECut Oxygen Plasma Cutting System reduced part clean-up. Ninety percent of the parts from the Whitney go directly to welding, a press brake or other process. James W. McMullen, President, and JoAnn McMullen, Secretary and Treasurer, Textile Industrial Welding New, Better Methods One of the newest additions in T.I.W.’s 66,000 square foot facility is a W.A. Whitney 3700 ATC hydraulic punch/TRUECut™ Oxygen Plasma Cutting Combination Fabricating Center. The 3700 ATC quickly joined the burn table as one of the most productive machines in the shop. “Before we had either machine, we would use templates, patterns and track burners. It took hours laying out the specs, checking the dimensions, marking it with chalk, laying out the templates, and forming the track. Plus all the clean-up,” explains JoAnn who handles financing of new equipment. “Now with the 3700 ATC, programming and cutting a part, you are talking about a few minutes compared to hours of layout time.” The addition of the Whitney also helped Bill Hicks, vice president of sales for the company, find new markets for T.I.W. Bill manages to coordinate sales nationally and—quite often—internationally with very little road time. “The Whitney does different kinds of work for us; we couldn’t do without it,” says Jimmy McMullen. “I would say in a year’s time it’s probably brought in more than a million dollars worth of extra work.” T.I.W. products are found in countries in the Middle East, China, Canada, South America, and several countries in Europe. The international business means that T.I.W. is adept at working in both the English and metric systems. “We don’t seek overseas business, but some products go international as an end result of our customers.” T.I.W.’s Fabrication Process The T.I.W. fabrication process begins when raw materials are cut to length, sheared, burned, rolled, bent, drilled or machined. T.I.W.’s material tracking system identifies where each part is at any time, regardless of the complexity of the project. Numerous cut parts and formed pieces are assembled together to be welded, ground, bolted, and further processed. The combined punching and cutting of the 3700 ATC contributes to T.I.W. economies by eliminating a lot of the material handling. “The other machine may have cut the part, but then that part had to be transferred to the machine department for drilling or to another department for punching. The material was being handled twice and the clean-up was not as efficient,” says JoAnn. “And you didn’t get as clean a cut as on the Whitney.” The plasma torch, still heavily used, works well for many applications, but What makes success? JIMMY AND JOANNE MCMULLEN HAVE DEDICATED THEIR LIVES TO MAKING Textile Industrial Welding a success. They credit two strong management philosophies and a vision for the future: First, a strong, dedicated employee base. Many of their employees have put in ten or more years with the company, with several reaching eighteen and twenty-five years. “The number one thing that makes a company is its employees. If you have good, skilled, honest, hardworking employees who worry about the quality of the product, then you are going to produce a good product.” Second, is their progressive stance on continually upgrading the technologies within their shop. “You have to keep up to date. Have good machinery like the Whitney. We started in 1994 and have really updated a lot of our equipment since then. We bought the new press brake, plate rolls, the 3700 ATC, and we’re buying an updated version of the plasma torch. That’s a lot of machinery being replaced or updated.” The future of the company is growth and family. The McMullen’s daughters are both involved in the family business. Connie McMullen Hardin is the Office Manager. Christa McMullen is a college student and works in the office part-time. “They are the future of Textile Industrial Welding. And our next generation…our grandchildren!” isn’t fast enough in many cases. And parts require more clean-up. There were also some difficulties with removing smaller parts from the bed. On the Whitney, parts up to 18-inch by 24-inch are automatically removed through the drop door. Typical material thicknesses at T.I.W. range from 16 gauge to 3⁄4 inch, and they are all punched and cut on the Whitney. T.I.W. is very pleased with the accuracy, ±.005 inch, and the dross-free cut provided by the TRUECut oxygen plasma system. Wayne Tyler, T.I.W. 3700 ATC Operator, supports one of the skeletons showing the efficient plate utilization with the nesting capabilities of Building Block software. Wayne attended training at the Rockford, IL facility to learn how to run and maintain the machine. T.I.W. President Jimmy McMullen points out one of the several parts on the tank that was punched and cut on the 3700 ATC. “Most parts that come off the Whitney, maybe 90 percent, go directly to the weld station or press brake,” says Jimmy. No clean-up is needed. Economic Production T.I.W. has seen a decrease in scrap since installing the 3700 ATC. The nesting program, supplied by Building Blocks, has made a significant difference in material utilization. Although T.I.W.’s scrap varies quite a bit depending on current projects, the software is flexible enough to provide the most efficient use of stock on a consistent basis. “When we found out that there was a machine like the Whitney, we were very interested. We had looked at quite a few lasers before we started looking at the Whitney and we weren’t as impressed,” Jimmy and JoAnn agree. “A salesman who sells both lasers and Whitney’s came up to see the work we were doing. He recommended we look at the 3700 ATC. That’s how it all got started.” Most of the time T.I.W. is scheduling work six to eight months out. A typical W.A. Whitney Co. AN ESTERLINE COMPANY week is one shift of 45 hours but they’ve been running seventy to seventy-five hours. “It would be much better if we had two shifts but if you can’t find the personnel you can’t do that. Our guys are real good in that they want to help out and are willing to work the long hours. They are dedicated people.” The Next 25 Years Looking to the future, Jimmy McMullen says, “I look forward to the next twentyfive years. Textile Industrial Welding plans to continue to build the best product and to give the very best in service. That has always been the company’s goal and will remain so in the future.” ◆ Parts shown are produced on the Whitney and go directly to the press brake for forming. 650 Race Street P.O. Box 1206 Rockford, IL 61105, U.S.A. Tel: 815-964-6771 Fax: 815-964-3175 www.wawhitney.com Report #111 Reprinted from Metal Fabricating News, Jul.-Sep., 1997
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