Svetsaren 1/2007 - Esab

completed barrels from the final welding station at
a rate of 600 barrels a shift, three shifts a day,
seven days a week. Purpose-designed welding
stations are operator manned to load and unload
the various components manually. On first sight
this may seem a monotonous task, but on closer
inspection it is easy to observe the extent of
pride and quality consciousness that is evident
in this process as it is across the whole
company and its products.
“In this environment there is no room for technical
problems arising along the production line”, says
Managing Director and Welding Engineer,
Dipl. Ing. Rudolf Moder. “Process stability is our
number one requirement, be it in cold pressing,
bending, marking or welding. Any malfunctioning
of equipment will directly result in a loss of factory
output, as all steps in the manufacturing process
are interdependent. This is also true for the
welding wires we use. We expect them to deliver
trouble-free performance within the maintenance
schedules we apply”.
Schäfer-Sudex is one of five production
companies within the Schäfer Group - a family
owned German enterprise with sales operations in
twenty-two countries and with production activities
ranging from industrial tools to household
appliances. Sudex was the original name given to
the former state owned company prior to privatization.
(Sud being the Czech word for barrel).
There’s more to beer barrels than one
might think
The outwardly straightforward construction of a
beer barrel is not the kind of thing that’s likely
to win you an industrial design award but,
nevertheless, there are some quite complex
production issues that have to be overcome in
order to meet the quality and aesthetic
requirements of the brewing industry.
The ability to handle 1-1.5 mm thin stainless
steel sheet for pressing, bending and welding
into barrels that are to be pressure tested to 35
Bar, as well as checked for radial consistency,
weld quality, penetration and smoothness and
for discoloration is an essential requirement.
And those same qualities need to be replicable
day in, day out and for month after month.
Figure 1. Finished beer barrel during pressure testing at 35 Bar. The top ring with hand grips and the drum (dotted
area) are fully visible. The base ring is partially covered by the clamp from the testing equipment. The central
circumferential joint is TIG-welded without consumables. The top and base rings are MIG-welded to the drum.
38 - Svetsaren no. 1 - 2007