International food and agricultural producer Cargill purchased an unfinished corn wet-mill ethanol plant in Fort Dodge, Iowa, in 2011; a facility with the capacity to grind 150,000 bushels of corn each day and produce 115 million gallons of ethanol per year.
But before production could start, Cargill needed to finish construction on the facility and bring it up to Cargill standards for quality and safety. With an aggressive schedule for completing that work and bringing the facility online, Cargill turned to Modern Piping, a full-service mechanical contractor headquartered in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
MODERN PIPING
Modern Piping completes about 1,100 projects each year all over the U.S., for clients as varied as hospitals, educational institutions, food processors, and power plants. Their work ranges from small commercial projects to large industrial jobs with as many as 100 employees on-site.
Given the aggressive timeline of this Cargill project, Modern Piping relied on the PipeWorx 350 FieldPro™ System from Miller Electric Mfg. Co. The equipment saved time and enhanced safety for the 33 Modern Piping workers on the jobsite while also producing high-quality welds in a field setting that included challenging weld locations hundreds of feet in the air, far away from the power source.
BENEFIT TO JOBSITE SAFETY
Modern Piping used the PipeWorx 350 FieldPro system at the Cargill site for Stick and TIG welding. The company was tasked with laying out, fabricating, and installing piping systems, including multiple process piping systems, compressed air lines, vacuum piping, chemical lines, cooling water supply and return, and steam. Much of the welding required was schedule 10 stainless steel pipe to be welded in elevated areas, requiring the use of scaffolds and man lifts. That made the remote control capabilities of the FieldPro System a timesaver that also increased jobsite safety, by reducing trips up and down stairs and ladders to change welding processes and parameters at the machine.
“It’s good for us because it increases productivity, improves value to the end user, as well as reduces safety concerns. There is great value to have a system that is very safe,” Brown says.
Using the Miller PipeWorx 350 FieldPro System, Modern Piping optimized arc performance for critical pipe welding, simplified cable management, and gained complete control at the weld joint.
MADE FOR THE FIELD
Constructed to withstand the rigors of field use, the PipeWorx 350 FieldPro offered Modern Piping simplified cable management, complete remote control at the weld joint and optimized arc performance for critical pipe welding.
The simplified cable management saved Modern Piping journeyman pipefitters time by eliminating all of the communication cables that cause clutter and hassle on jobsites. There were no control cables to string and manage.
The remote control at the weld joint was another timesaver and safety feature that benefited Modern Piping on the job. It gave workers the ability to make process and parameter changes at the weld, as far as 200 feet away from the power source.
Modern Piping journeyman pipefitters using Stick and TIG processes were able to change process selection, amperage adjustment and Stick electrode selection remotely, and the push-button process changeover eliminated the need for swapping cables. They were also able to reduce the opportunity for weld defects because the correct polarity is automatically set for each welding process, and the FieldPro System alerted Modern Piping journeyman pipefitters if the weld cables were connected incorrectly. The machine’s ability to set optimal parameters automatically improves quality control by helping ensure a consistent bead profile and by minimizing defects caused by incorrect welding parameters, such as porosity or lack of fusion. Each set up of a new weld process can be done with the touch of a button, so the streamlined system helped avoid downtime and let the Modern Piping journeyman pipefitters maintain focus on the weld.
QUALITY AND EASE OF USE
Modern Piping journeyman pipefitters said they also noticed the quality welds they get from the PipeWorx 350 FieldPro System. According to Josh Van Thournout, a journeyman pipefitter with Local 125 in Cedar Rapids, the arc is smooth and the end of the tungsten doesn’t blow upon startups, which helps prevent weld failures.
“The quality of the machine is everything,” he says. “It doesn’t break the end of your tungsten off, the heat stays consistent to it, not up or down. You start out, it’s smooth, it’s right there; you don’t get a fast start or a pop or anything like that. The differences are on your starts and stops, really.”
Ease of use is another benefit. Journeyman pipefitters with Modern Piping are skilled at multiple types of welding, and they said it was an easy jump to the PipeWorx 350 FieldPro.
“It took about five minutes to show how to use it, not even that,” Hensley says. “It was great. It’s efficient, it makes things faster. In effect, it makes you a better tradesman.”
PROVEN RESULTS
Thanks to the system, Modern Piping more efficiently completed several months of work to ready the Cargill plant for grinding corn to produce ethanol and other bio-based products. The PipeWorx 350 FieldPro kept Cargill on schedule to open the facility, and it makes Modern Piping more competitive. ■
About The Author For more information about the Miller PipeWorx 350 FieldPro, visit www.millerwelds.com.
Modern Contractor Solutions, September 2014
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