Increase working safety, be cost-effective, and manufacture perfectly rounded tanks, towers, and pressure vessels.
High-quality tanks, pressure vessels, and towers need to be manufactured faster in order to maintain competitiveness and profitability in the markets. Together with an integrated welding system, modern assembly station is the key to boost manufacturing efficiency and take the targeted productivity leap in thick and thin material shell manufacturing.
What is an assembly line?
An assembly line is a solution to weld and assembles a shell and section together. A typical assembly line consists of a set of hydraulic fit-up units, a power and idler unit, and an integrated welding system. When based on modern automation, manufacturing with the assembly station minimizes the need for cranes, increases working safety, and requires only one operator.
Assembly station is extremely beneficial for manufacturing tubular and conical end-products where perfect roundness is important, such as pressure vessels, tanks, and onshore and offshore wind towers.
How does it work?
Firstly, the shell is lifted with a crane on the fit-up and jig unit. The section, to which the shell is wanted to be joined, lies on the power and idler unit. The fit-up unit, equipped with end-stoppers, firmly pushes the shell against the section.
Before the shell and section are tack-welded, independent leveling cylinders make sure that the edges of the structures are evenly fitted, but also that the shell maintains its perfect roundness. The leveling is done before each tack-weld. An operator can control the assembly station with wireless control, so rotating is the section and shell is easy and fast.
Once the shell and section are joined with tack welds, the power and idler units move the entire section further while making room for a new shell to be joined.
The standard selection of assembly station is applicable for diameters of 1,5-8 meters.
Assembly station for thin materials: Revolutionary supporting arm technology
It’s obvious that when assembling shells with thin materials, such as tanks and low-pressure process vessels, the roundness of the shell is extremely difficult to maintain. Although, the perfect shape is crucial since it has a direct effect on the final product quality.
To tackle this challenge, Pemamek has developed a revolutionary assembly station that comes with hydraulic supporting arms. The supporting arms are equipped with small rollers avoiding damaging the surface of the workpiece.
Integrated welding column & boom
To gain a high level of automation and guarantee maximum performance, PEMA assembly stations come with a fully integrated Column & Boom (C&B) welding solution.
The C&B comes with a PEMA WeldControl production management control system which is equipped with modern seam-tracking. Additionally, the C&B has a wide selection of high-quality welding processes, such as GMAW and single and multi-wire SAW.
PEMA C&B series are Medium Duty (MD), Heavy Duty (HD), and Extra-Heavy Duty (EHD). The movement range starts from 3×3 and goes up to 10×10 meters.
Only one operator is needed to manage the entire PEMA Assembly line. With an integrated welding system, production capacity can be increased significantly.