Lightening the welding load

Images courtesy of Gullco.

Gullco International has been manufacturing welding and cutting automation equipment in Canada since 1954, and its headquarters have been in Newmarket, Ont., for 17 years now. The company is best known for its welding and cutting automation carriages (its KAT® and MOGGY® brand names often are more ubiquitous than the Gullco name itself) and its bevelling equipment. However, it has been several years since Gullco has put its name to a new product, which makes the launch of its 300 series KAT all the more noteworthy.

The gap between launches seems surprising, but the company says the delay is due to the its focus on client needs; the lean engineering team has spent much of that intervening time creating specialized automation equipment for customers.

Beyond that, as Marketing Manager Nick Drake explained, the company constantly tweaks its existing products as necessary.

“I think of it as the IOS update, where you get the same phone but you get the improved software,” said Drake. “Our controls are constantly updated. The product looks the same, feels the same, it’s just better.”

But there were calls from certain industries for a welding automation carriage that required more than a tweak here and there, so gradually the engineering team, with the input of the sales team and their customers, created the 300 series KAT to meet those needs.

The KAT is essentially a carriage that rides on a track, carrying either welding or cutting equipment.

“The carriage is what we call the KAT, and there are many accessories that go with it,” Drake said. “It’s like LEGO®: You take the pieces you need, put it together, and adapt it as necessary.”

The carriage was originally built for welding in the shipyards, and it was from the shipyards that the demand came for a new design.

“With union requirements and health and safety demands, there has been pressure to reduce the weight of the carriage for some time,” said Drake. “But durability is one of the key values of what we offer our clients from our products. And part of durability is making a tank; our standard carriage is 29 lbs. When you add cables and all the racking and welding equipment, that carriage is then more than 40 lbs. But 20 lbs. is the maximum the shipyards want to deal with for equipment of that kind. Now, there are ways of making it so that a person is not lifting all of that 40 lbs. at once. And the time saved by using the carriage system in welding and cutting is substantial enough that we still sell the product on that strength.”

Still, Gullco was being strongly encouraged to develop a smaller, lighter carriage that was as durable as its original carriage.

In some ways the new KAT is similar to the old one – the drive system is very much the same, but it has a smaller and lighter motor. The carriage is still aluminum, but the size of the frame has been reduced significantly. The look of the carriage, minus its new OSHA orange colouring, is similar in many ways to the original model created by Drake’s grandfather 50-plus years ago.

Although the new carriage is aluminum, like most of Gullco’s products, it is not cast as many of its products are. The design has been tweaked to lighten the structure, including the creation of a dovetail racking system integrated into the carriage’s handle.

Previously a rack box riser was placed on the front of the carriage to provide the height necessary for vertical and horizontal adjustments in most applications. Now with the dovetailed handle, the carriage does not need the riser because the handle provides an adjustable mounting structure for the welding and cutting equipment.

Setup of the machine is also toolless now; everything can be locked in and adjusted without additional tools. In addition, the wheels are snap-lock wheels, which means operators can get them set to run more quickly than they could before.

On the technology side, the system has been designed with a conformal coating on the circuit boards to prevent them from overheating or being affected by dirt, dust, debris, and moisture.

All told, the new carriage weighs in at 13 lbs., which also means that it is more energy-efficient to run, as well as being easier to manipulate by operators.

“All of these changes are really valuable for our users, but where I feel the technology stands out is in the controls,” said Drake. “The controls are doing thousands of calculations a second to maintain the accurate speed, regardless of the weight you put on it, which can be as much as 60 lbs. with this new model.”

Drake insists that the new model isn’t about to replace the company’s heavy-duty original product.

“For instance, sub-arc welding requires a lot of equipment, including flux hoppers and heavy sand,” he explained. “For that kind of job you will always require a heavier-duty carriage. This new product’s design changes were inspired by the needs of the shipbuilding industry but will be recognized in a variety of different welding applications, including tank and bridge construction, pressure vessels and pipe welding applications, beam construction, and other heavy fabrication processes.”

Gullco, like any other company, has to compete globally for business. The owners made a conscious decision to keep its manufacturing base in Canada when competitors decided to ship some of their manufacturing overseas.

“We don’t compromise our product so we can compete on price” said Drake. “We provide service, though. If you buy our equipment, we come and commission the job, and it is our responsibility to ensure that our equipment works well in the field. And we are not going to sell automation to someone who can’t use it. And, of course, durability is key. That’s why we manufacture here in Canada – so that we can have full control of quality.”

Drake understands that innovative products like the new carriage are key to the future success of the company and commended the young engineering team for the work they did to make it a reality.

“We are an older company with a lot of knowledge on the floor,” said Drake. “That, combined with these younger talents who understand new software and technological developments, is making us stronger all the time.”

Editor Robert Colman can be reached at rcolman@canadianfabweld.com.