Onsite Welding Services: What are the Benefits?

13 December 2019

Although welding shops use their services to support a wide range of industrial and commercial clients, this workflow isn’t going to suit everyone. Granted, shop conditions favour a more controlled environment, but how inconvenient is it to relocate a welding job? In fact, how impractical, possibly impossible, might it be to redeploy an onsite project to a shop that’s located kilometres off-site? More than a question of convenience, it’s simply not possible to carry out some jobs back at a welding shop.

Developing an Onsite Welding Service

In a large truck or utility vehicle, a team of welding professionals can be dispatched to any worksite. When there, there’s that convenience factor to advance. Right there, where the steel beams and fittings require welding, the team sets their arc welding gear up for the job. Alternatively, prefabricated metal frames can be partially assembled back on a workshop floor, but now there are transportation logistics to work out, which won’t be cheap. As far as job impracticalities go, it just doesn’t make sense to shift a pile of heavy parts away from their installation sites. Moreover, that’s not always possible, not if we’re talking about ground-planted steel fencing or immovable structural steel frames. Prefab steel structures are, of course, an exception to this rule.

A Capacity to Assess Site-Based Wild Cards

The latitude to provide high-quality joints when working under controlled conditions, that’s generally a benefit that welders associate with offsite facilities. To be honest, this is a feature that can quickly turn against itself. When working onsite, the team can assess adverse conditions and then adapt their service to accommodate those conditions. For example, if a corrosive setting is observed, a welder uses a different filler wire or adds an additional bead pass to the job. Basically, the service adapts on-the-fly to compensate for any job irregularities. Again, this feature can be provided elsewhere, but it might take time to communicate a job change. Working right on top of the job, the adaptations are instantly integrated.

From a logistics standpoint, the job will proceed more productively if it’s done locally. If the welding is redeployed, sent elsewhere, schedules are thrown off as the work enters a workplace queue. Priorities are shuffled, communications channels become strained, and transportation plans suffer. By attending to the welding work locally, by doing it onsite, site managers know that the dispatched mobile welders will focus solely on the work-at-hand. And, should a schedule conflict present itself, well, the welders are right there to help work around the problem. Fast and free of hidden costs, the job is done to suit a site’s timeline, not the other way around.