Cobot Welders in an SME at Shand Engineering lTD
Facing the critical quality demands of the Oil & Gas industry, Shand Engineering, a UK-based SME manufacturing marine hose end fittings, sought to eliminate inconsistency and risk from their production line. Their products need to meet the highest standards of traceability and integrity.
A challenge difficult to maintain solely with manual welding.
Cobot Welding: Mastering Quality and Retaining Upskilled Welders
By choosing a Collaborative Robot (Cobot) solution through Energas, Shand Engineering achieved a triple win: unmatched weld consistency, dramatically increased throughput, and, crucially, a fully retained and upskilled workforce.
The Verdict: The Cobot delivered a weld that is "far more accurate than a human," while being "blimming quick." Most importantly, the company confirmed: "We haven't lost a single person."
The Challenge of Absolute Quality and Speed
The problem for Shand Engineering was achieving a predictable, zero-defect weld required for components that cannot afford to leak into the ocean. This required a level of repeatability that exceeded what manual processes could consistently deliver across shifts and personnel.
Operations Manager Patrick Annibal explains the uncompromising nature of their market: "Everything is about traceability, making sure everything is absolutely right."
The solution had to solve two key needs simultaneously:
- Guaranteed Quality: Achieving and proving absolute consistency to satisfy industry regulators.
- Increased Capacity: Finding a way to speed up production without adding significant complexity, floor space, or labor.
The welding Cobot provided by Energas was the perfect answer. Its compact size and collaborative nature made it ideal for the SME shop floor. This welding cobot is immediately stepping in to handle the repetitive welding tasks that demanded unyielding precision.
The Energas Solution: Consistency, Accuracy, and Speed
Energas recommended a Collaborative Robot (Cobot) welding solution, perfectly suited for the SME environment. The welding cobot's smaller footprint, ease of programming, and built-in safety features allowed it to be integrated directly into the existing fabrication cell.
The goal of this welding cobot was not on replacement of the actual welders, but on consistent, repeatable quality. The cobot took over the repetitive, high-volume welds, delivering immediate and measurable technical improvements:
- Precision and Accuracy: The robotic weld is "far more accurate than a human", guaranteeing the critical, traceable quality the oil and gas industry demands.
- Throughput Boost: The increase in speed and consistency delivered major efficiency gains. As Patrick puts it: "The cobot is a lot quicker than a human, and we're getting consistency of weld. From our point of view, it's blimming quick."
The Game-Changer: Staff Retention and Job Variety
A concern while implementing this new Welding Cobot at Shand Engineering was the remplacement of the actual workers in the shop floor. Energas's solution was introduced not to eliminate jobs, but to elevate the role of the skilled welder:
- Zero Job Loss: Shand Engineering successfully navigated the transition with zero redundancies. "I can safely say we haven't lost a single person. Every person that was here when we introduced the Cobot is still here today," says Annibal.
- Job Enrichment: By offloading repetitive welding tasks to the cobot, the human welders gained valuable "job variety." They now focus on higher-value fabrication, quality improvement, and ensuring the pre-weld setup is perfect for the Cobot, allowing them to utilize their expertise where it matters most.
Operational Excellence: Unbeatable Support and Uptime
Choosing the right equipment is not the only thing you need to be focus on, working witht the right partner is going to be the guarantees of your success. Thanks to this case study, you can experience the peace of mind provided by Energas commitment to support and high-efficiency peripheral equipment.
- UK-Based Support and Training: Energas team and partners ensured minimal downtime and rapid training. "If we had a problem on a Monday, they'd be there on a Tuesday to help with the training," Patrick notes, emphasizing the dedication to customer success.
- Qlixbi System for Uptime: Enhancing the Cobot cell was the Qlixbi gas system, which boosts both safety and efficiency. The system is easy for operators—it "just clicks into place". Its critical uptime feature means you can know in advance when you're running out of gas which eliminate the costly operational failure of running out halfway through a weld.
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