Brimfield, OH-based East End Welding Inc. has performed welding, fabrication and other services since 1949. For quite some time, CEO and president John Susong had wanted the company to spend more time doing fabrication for the power generation industry as a way to improve operational efficiency and finished weld quality. Eventually, the opportunity presented itself in an end cap-to-header welding application.
Initially East End Welding used shielded metal arc welding. Unfortunately, it was time consuming because each end cap requires preheat and interpass temperatures, as well as a complete-penetration, multiple-pass weld. Also, because the header is 17 feet long, it was prone to awkward overhandling during fabrication.