Johnson & Berry Manufacturing Inc. (L'Anse, MI) manufactures hydraulic cylinders, rollers and pins for the heavy equipment industry. Historically, the company's semiautomated flux-cored welding processes have constituted a bottleneck. But, being a smaller shop with just 16 employees, the price tag for a fully automated system put that kind of advanced technology beyond the company's reach.
Recently, however, Johnson & Berry implemented an eCell, dual, fixed-table robotic cell from Lincoln Electric Co. (Cleveland) to weld boom bushings and plates. The result has been a 4- to 5-hour reduction in production times for a 180-piece job, so that it now takes just 2 hours.