“ ... only with the very best equipment!”
Welding expert Robert Ederer obtains wirefeed speeds of over 15 m/min, and deposition rates of up to 11kg/h, with the TIME 5000 Digital.
Nearly a third of Kinkele’s 350 employees work in the welding shop. Measuring 6000 m2, the welding building at the firm’s main site is almost as big as a football field.
105 welding systems, including both GMA (gas metal arc) and TIG (tungsten inert gas) appliances, are in three-shift operation here. “We are equipped to handle components weighing up to 100 tonnes apiece, and can make just about everything ourselves”, explains Managing Director Friedrich A. Kinkele.
Welding-system partners in long-term performance test
Master welder and welding instructor Wilfried Lang goes into the topic of highperformance and double-wire welding in greater depth, pointing out the innovative Fronius welding systems installed for the firm’s advanced robot systems and CNC portals, and then showing the visitor an “old-timer” from 1992: A Fronius “TIME” machine that has been working round the clock here for nearly 14 years (approx. 122,500 hours)!
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Made of St52 and S355J2, this cover piece has a diameter of 3600 mm. The Kinkele specialists are welding it with high-performance systems from Fronius. |
Economical welding on heavy steel applications
A 15 to 25 mm long stick-out causes very pronounced heating-up of the wire. This, in turn, makes possible higher wirefeed speeds and deposition rates - which is why the TIME Process delivers economical welding of thick steel plates, with its up to 30 % higher deposition rate.
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A “TIME 5000 Digital”-welded gearbox waiting to be taken away for stress-relief annealing. |
The welding system matches the requirements profile of all users who need to manually weld larger lengths and cross-sections of seam. It also boasts all the advantages of the digital system: Superb welding properties, 100 % reproducibility of all results, digital microprocessor control and a modular system concept.
Flexibility is also a matter of what materials a system can weld. Although the TIME Process is focused on low-alloy, unalloyed or low-temperature resistant special steels, with the TIME 5000 Digital welding system users can also weld other materials such as aluminium or CrNi steels.
Kinkele’s clientèle includes firms from 25 different manufacturing sectors. One particularly special and prestigious order was for the world’s biggest horse sculpture, erected in Heidelberg (Germany) in 2000. This moveable work of art weighs approx. 100 tonnes. Its steel parts were fabricated and immaculately joined and mounted at Kinkele’s.
After the very positive experience with the system so far, the welding technicians at Kinkele are planning to use it for aluminium and high-grade chrome-nickel alloys as well. Asked to give some typical examples of the challenging applications that Kinkele frequently have to deal with, Wilfried Lang mentions large tanks for drainage systems and sewage treatment plants, gearbox casings and machine frames, excavator shovels or stable base constructions for mixing-plant and other heavy machinery.
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Kinkele GmbH Co.KG
This medium-sized firm from Ochsenfurt in Southern Germany can look back on over 100 years’ metalworking experience. Managing Director Friedrich A. Kinkele describes the firm’s market niche, and the expectations its customers have of it, like this: “The bigger, trickier and sooner, the better”. In Germany alone, Kinkele - the country’s biggest contract manufacturer - supplies more than 200 customers from virtually all sectors of industry where large, custom engineering components or installations are used. |
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TIME 5000 Digital
Utilisation
30 % greater economy in welding steel plates, thanks to increased wirespeed or a higher deposition rate.
Technical data
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No. 16 - Mai 2006