A room with industrial machinery, including large pipes and blowers, positioned on metal platforms. A person works in the background amidst wires and equipment.
Case Study

Offshore

A person operates a large robotic welding arm in an industrial setting. The area is equipped with safety barriers and overhead lighting. The robotic arm is attached to a red and yellow support and control panel.

Offshore Case Study

One of North America’s largest and most respected Engineering Procurement and Construction companies purchased two of Novarc’s Spool Welding Robots to work collaboratively with welders at their fabrication facility constructing large, complex offshore platforms. According to one of the executives, it was an easy sell. “We put our CEO on the robot, and he was able to weld a six-inch pipe in 10 minutes. I didn’t have to do much more selling than that, except for showing the return on investment.” Our client demands that an ROI on their initial investment be no more than 36-months, we provided an 8-month ROI with our SWR.

“You kind of get a triple effect when you look into the ROI situation in that I’m using lower labor, building it faster, and my overall cost is cheaper. Essentially I can produce more units in the same footprint.”

A robotic welding machine is working on a large metal pipe, emitting bright sparks and smoke. The setup is inside a workshop against a red backdrop. The machinery is positioned at the pipe's joint, performing automated welding.

Challenges that Forced them to Investigate New Solutions

Offshore platform construction and maintenance is challenging, high-risk work. Welders working on these projects are at risk from injuries due to UV light, radiant and excessive heat, carcinogenic fumes and arc flash. Combine these risks with a work environment that includes heavy equipment, suspended loads, rough terrain and extreme weather conditions, and there is an obvious cause for concern.

In addition to safety concerns, the welding industry is faced with a shortage of skilled welders as many are retiring, and not enough young laborers are entering the profession. And then there’s the competitive nature of fabrication shops serving the manufacturing industry.

The dwindling supply of qualified labour in the welding industry is a significant issue for pipe fabricators in both North America and Europe, which is accelerating the need to automate. More automation can free up skilled welders from doing repetitive work, enabling them to do the more difficult welds. “The cost of labor is rising, and labor is getting scarcer, so more companies are moving toward automation because it’s the only way to survive. If they don’t invest in technology automation, then they probably won’t be around in another 10 years.”

Many have seen the benefit of investing in flexible automation in order to increase their competitiveness and their bid rate on projects.

A person wearing a hard hat and mask operates machinery in an industrial setting. They are interacting with a touchscreen display, surrounded by various equipment and safety barriers.

Novarc’s Spool Welding Robot (SWR) Solution

Novarc works with pipe fabricators that are looking for ways to lower their cost per weld to make them more competitive in the industries they serve. The SWR’s patented technology makes this a Cobot that is user-friendly and designed to promote safety, increase productivity, enhance weld quality and reduce pipe welding costs while providing pipe fabrication shops an affordable path to automation.

Novarc’s SWR doesn’t abandon the human operator, instead, it works alongside the welder, allowing those with less skill and experience to do the job that only senior welders could perform. The results are welds with greater precision, accuracy, speed and a never before achieved balance of productivity and quality.

The Bottom Line

With Novarc’s SWR, our customer has been able to produce more units on the same shop footprint. The facility on average welds about 500 spools a week, in a 100’ x 100’ building. A typical pipe shop is about three times that size and has the same production rates.

Increased Safety

Safety is a huge concern in the oil and gas and pipeline construction industry. It is understood that work is awarded to fabrication shops that have a clean record and adhere to strict safety standards. “When you start putting more automation into the welding process, it practically eliminates human error. That’s a big driver into lowering costs, providing a safer place to work and a more consistent, better quality end product. And the SWR allows you to stay within code and is very precise, and very fast.”

User-Friendly

“There’s nothing that I’ve seen in the market in the last two years to even come close. What sets Novarc apart is the ease-of-use of the tool and the fact that it is user friendly. The SWR has the end-user in mind. Once you buy the robot, you have the tech support and everything to assist you so you’re not standing alone. And on top of that, it’s hard to replace the machine once you have it, because there’s nothing really that can weld much faster or better. ”With the ease of use of the SWR,” the company executive said, “The cost of labor to perform our welds decreased significantly – we could use a young welder, a fifth class fitter, to make our welds. So there’s an added gain in needing fewer people to perform higher quality welds.”

A robotic welding arm with a flexible hose and control panel. The machine is mounted vertically with a display screen on the right side. The arm is metallic and industrial in design, positioned against a dark, blurred background.

World Class Support

“The robot software allows Novarc to live link into the data to remotely access and see the same issue you’re seeing. This means you don’t have to verbally explain over the phone. They visually see the maps and the coding behind it as the SWR is operating to see the glitches, if there are any, and also help diagnose the kinks from remote access. This allows for very fast problem solving, and not having to miss something in translation or incorrectly explain the issue.”

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