Lead Forensics

Why Steely uses metalworkers to weld steel

At Steely Products, we’re proud to make high-quality material handling and storage equipment using tubular steel that is welded together. There are many advantages to attaching tubular steel using the welding process rather than the alternative of riveting.

Each length of tubular steel must be attached to other lengths to form the finished equipment. Tubular steel is strong, but it doesn’t matter how strong it is if the equipment fails due to bad joints. Steely Products metalworkers make sure every joint they weld is robust.

The advantages of welding

Welding has many advantages:

Speed – to keep the cost of equipment down, it needs to be fabricated quickly and efficiently. The speed of fabricating using welding is quicker than other processes.

Safety – riveting is noisy and requires workers to use equipment to protect their ears. Welding is much quieter,but workers must wear safety helmets to protect their eyes and gloves to prevent arm and hand burns. A skilled welder using the right protective equipment is at very little risk of injury compared to the riveting process, which involves heavy riveting equipment.

Workspace – the welding process requires less workspace compared to riveting.

Appearance – a well-executed welded joint looks good, especially when painted. This looks better than bulky riveting and rivet plates.

No holes – to attach rivets, holes must be made in the steel, this can weaken the steel and make it less suitable for heavy carrying.

It takes more skill to weld than to use rivets, as a bad weld joint will be weak. Steely Products employs only highly skilled metalworkers and has regular inspections to make sure all our welds are as strong as they should be.

Why not use robots?

Some businesses are using robots to weld steel, pointing to the advantages of increased productivity and consistency. Many manufacturers who produce standard equipment designs in large quantities see a competitive advantage in using welding robots, sicne they do not need breaks and do not demand overtime payments for working long hours.

We avoid this approach, and instead manufacture many assorted designs of material handling and storage equipment in small quantities at a time. Many users want custom-made designs, or equipment produced in non-standard sizes. This makes it impractical to use robots.

Steely Products is a family-run friendly business that welcomes visitors to talk to our welders. Robots could have Alexa or Siri-type artificial intelligence added, but we’re sure our end user would still prefer to talk to humans than machines.

Reliability

You don’t have to be an expert on welding to appreciate the quality of Steely Products. We have been manufacturing equipment by welding since 1970 and have become expert in manufacturing equipment that is designed well and built to last.

Many businesses rely on Steely Products equipment to supply their storage and material handling equipment. They know that the equipment will not let them down during heavy use. They may not care about which process is used to join the tubular steel, as long as the joints are solid so that the tubular steel lengths stay together, and we know our skilled metalworkers are able to achieve this.

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