Bucket Fabricator Eliminates Slag’s Drag with Metal Cored Wire
Mike Bokulic Jr. is the kind of guy who likes to think big. The excavation buckets they make at his father’s company, Mike’s Welding, Inc. of Fontana, Calif., can top 45,000 pounds and take weeks to fabricate. They’re the kind of buckets that contractors ask for when standard production ones just won’t cut it.
Mike Jr. also thinks big when it comes to designing the buckets. Rather than use mild steel (ASTM grade A36) for the entire shell of the bucket, like most production companies do, Mike’s Welding uses hardened AR400 steel for the entire shell and T1 (ASTM grade A514 T1) steel for the lip.
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| A finished bucket from Mike's Welding. |
The company still relies on the standard A36 mild steel for the ears, the part that serves as the structural point of the bucket, due to its lower tensile strength. (Note: AR400 has an extremely high tensile strength, making it prone to cracking. It is not recommended for use as a structural portion of any type of heavy equipment.)
The result of the material choices and specialized fabrication: the buckets at Mike’s Welding cost a little more, but over time, they save customers money by offering longer life spans and reducing downtime for repairs.
The company applies the same costs principles to their choice of filler metals. For years, Mike’s Welding relied on a less expensive, self-shield flux cored wire (AWS classification E70T-4). That is, until they applied a big picture approach and discovered that metal cored wire could help create a higher quality product and save more money in the long run. Like the company’s buckets, metal cored wire costs slightly more per unit (it also requires additional costs for gas), however, the benefits more than justify the upfront expense.
By switching from a flux cored wire to Hobart Brothers’ Tri-Mark® Metalloy® 110 gas-shielded metal cored wire, Mike’s Welding has cut approximately eight man-hours from their bucket fabrication [for a 13-yard bucket] and, more importantly, has virtually eliminated expensive warranty rework on cracks that used to form along the welds. The result has been a ten percent increase in productivity and a savings of approximately $560 in labor costs for per [13 yard] bucket.
Quality is Priority One
As a seven-person company whose livelihood depends on quality performance for every job - Mike’s Welding relies solely on word of mouth marketing and doesn’t run an inch of advertising anywhere - they are well aware of the impact a few defective or problematic products can have on the business.
“A family-owned business is a lot different than larger production companies,” Mike Jr. said. “It’s hands-on. It’s your name. It’s your reputation. It’s everything."
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Mike's Welding welds additional AR plate to their buckets to protect against abrasive wear and help extend the life of their products. |
Imagine the frustration, then, when the company started seeing cracks forming along the welds of their own buckets after being used in the field.
"When we used flux cored wire, we were experiencing cracking problems at the edge of the plate where it was beveled, and the crack would shoot down right though the welds,” Mike Jr. said. “Here, that’s just not acceptable. With us, it’s all about quality. That’s how we do business.”
Even though Mike’s Welding had (and still has) a very flexible, pragmatic warranty policy in place to manage problems such as cracking, that policy, along with the company’s customer-centered attitude (the company repairs defective parts long past the industry standard of 90 days), both came at a price.
Some of the company’s larger buckets could cost $5,000 or more to ship back to their repair facility. If a customer opted for onsite repairs, Mike’s Welding needed to hire welders who could perform the repairs in the field. In addition to the shipping and repair expenses, Mike Jr. also knew the impact that defective products could have on the reputation of this family-owned business and decided to take action.
Making the Switch
Mike’s Welding was first alerted to the possibility of using metal cored wire after discussing some of the cracking issues with their long-time welding supplier, Patrick Gonzalez of California Tool and Welding Supply.
“We talked with Mike Jr. and he was interested in learning more about it, so we got in touch with Ed Bogner, Miller Electric [and Hobart Brothers] district manager to verify that a metal cored wire would work with their applications,” Gonzalez said.
With Gonzalez and Bogner’s help, welding fabricators tested Metalloy 110 in 1/16-inch diameter on some of the smaller buckets. Once they were able to figure out the right gas mixture for their needs - in this case, 90 percent Argon and 10 percent CO2 - and became comfortable welding with metal cored wire, Mike’s Welding knew they were onto something.
The primary reason for this difference in weld bead appearance is that metal cored wire operates in a spray transfer mode and does not produce slag like flux cored wires do.
The combination of those two factors provides welding fabricators with a flatter, spatter-free, washed-in weld. But more importantly, it eliminates the time and costs needed for chipping slag between welding passes.
After making the switch to Metalloy 110, Mike’s Welding saw appreciable difference in the costs related to both the fabrication of their buckets and to their customer-centered warranty policies.
For example, fabricating a 13-yard bucket takes approximately 60 to 80 man-hours. Some of that time includes pre-heating the AR400 steel (from 250 to 400 degrees Fahrenheit depending on its thickness) to help protect against rapid cooling that could lead to cracking.
While Mike’s Welding still applies pre-heat when welding with Metalloy 110, they have eliminated a significant portion of their post-weld activities.
Using their former flux cored wire, welding fabricators spent approximately six hours cleaning slag and grinding spatter from the finished product. The bucket would then undergo approximately two hours of full cleanup (often additional grinding of spatter) for paint preparation. Since implementing the metal cored wire, welding fabricators have eliminated these post-weld activities completely. At an overhead of $70 per hour for labor, ridding the company of eight hours of labor per bucket means significant savings, $560 per 13-yard bucket to be exact.
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Metalloy 110 has helped Mike's Welding reduce costs associated with warranty issues. |
But perhaps the biggest benefit of the new metal cored wire has been the considerable reduction in the cracking problems and with it, excessive warranty costs.
“We haven’t had many issues at all since we switched to the metal cored wire,” Mike Jr. said. “The Metalloy is more expensive than the flux cored wire we were using, but it’s been well worth it in the long run.”
According to Bogner, companies like Mike’s Welding who measure the long-term benefits of spending more upfront when fabricating a product can reap the return on investment for both their company and their customers. “If you only base your expenses on the cost of the actual product [the filler metal], that’s not the full figure,” explains Bogner. “Labor is usually the number one expense in fabricating a product. If we can reduce labor by increasing travel speeds and eliminating slag chipping, it’s going to save everyone a lot of money.” Minimizing rework and repairs, whether they occur when a bucket is shipped to Mike’s Welding or when they pay for onsite repairs, adds to that savings.
As Mike’s Welding has learned through the transition from flux cored to metal cored wire, a short-term approach may result in short-term cost savings, but over time that savings can easily be negated through expensive warranty coverage repairs and increased production costs. From his own experience, Mike Jr. recommends companies take a big picture approach to their fabricating process. Doing so can help them realize that spending a little more for a product that better serves their needs will pay long-term dividends and result in more satisfied customers and, in turn, more business.
More on Metalloy
Metalloy 110 wire comes in .045- and 1/16-in. diameters and uses an Argon and CO2 mixture or either 90 percent Argon and 10 percent CO2 or 75 percent Argon and 25 percent CO2. It has a minimum tensile strength of 110,000 psi and is suitable for welding on many quenched and tempered steels as well as many other high-strength steels.