Subarc Hercules – Komatsu Case Study
Komatsu Longview, which manufactures the world’s largest front-end loaders, sought continuous improvement to increase throughput while maintaining its stringent weld quality standards. Impressed by the new Hobart/Miller Sub-arc Hercules process, which significantly increased the deposition rate, they conducted in-house testing that demonstrated a 50% reduction in weld time. This data justified the immediate purchase, allowing the facility to double the capacity of the welding cell while achieving an easy transition for the welders due to the system’s simple, one-switch operation.
Video Transcript
Here at Komatsu Longview, Texas operations, we fabricate and weld the largest front end loaders in the world. To haul rock, iron ore, coal. We have some of the tightest weld requirements that I’ve worked with in different industries. I’ve worked in nuclear and oil and gas subsea. Komatsu is big on continuous improvement. How can we make this weld better?
How can we make it faster. How can we strive to meet our customer demands and quality? We were looking at ways to increase throughput in the shop without impacting the mechanical properties. So our visit to the Houston Tech Center, we were going down with our Miller reps doing some weld tests for the metal core wire. They were working on their new Hercules sub-arc process and it was really impressive.
We were looking for an increase in deposition rate. Flipped the switch to turn on the Hercules and you could just see the wire feed speed just ramp up without impacting bead appearance or mechanicals. This was very eye opening. How the wires are made. We realized that Hobart also offers a lot and the standard that they hold for their materials.
The product basically sold itself once we had realized the savings that we would have. There was a question from upper management on are these real numbers because they are very big numbers and they set up the Hercules sub-arc in our facility. We did some parts, showed that we did have that 50% reduction in the weld time. Just by that data we were able to justify buying it.
You just flip a switch. The Hercules process turns on, the Miller controller takes over and makes the adjustments. So it’s very easy to use. Our welders are asking if we could get the wire and drums a set of spools because they were having to change the spools more often during the shift, doubled the capacity of that cell while still meeting our quality environments of our customers.
So there’s always hesitation in a new process. But with the support that we had, it was a very smooth transition. So if anybody’s concerned switching to sub-arc Hercules, I highly recommend it. It’s been a very easy relationship. This product checked all the boxes. It’s great. I love it. I don’t want anybody else to use it.