JACOB Tubing Systems, a nexAir customer of seventeen years and running, created their manufacturing hub of modular tubing systems in the Greater Memphis Area. As a business breaching international markets, the size and scale of their projects has significantly increased since their start in 1998 as a sales and distribution facility. With growing demands for their services in arenas from pharmaceutical and food to chemical and automotive, the JACOB team wanted to develop their process to better fit the needs of the modern fabrication industry.
As the welder shortage rises year over year, manufacturing companies such as JACOB need to find innovative solutions to fill the role for simple welding tasks so that highly skilled welders can focus their energies on specialized projects. Their nexAir Territory Manager promptly touched base with them after JACOB informed him of their challenge. Due to their longstanding relationship, the Territory Manager was well aware of their production process and how he could be of service during this obstacle. Being familiar with the different automation solutions on the market, the nexAir team recommended implementing a cobot to take over mundane jobs such as half shell elbow welding. Once realizing the capabilities of the automation system, JACOB knew this was the best solution for their team.
Since incorporating automation, JACOB Tubing Systems is now relieved of the pressures of the growing welder shortage. One team members states, “Our nexAir rep assisted us in developing the relationship with Vectis and provided support during the developmental phase of our welding applications with the cobot…It allowed us increased labor efficiency of the welding employees by reassigning particular welding tasks to the cobot in addition to producing a more consistent weld quality of those produced items.” While another employee suggests, “Once the settings are dialed in on the cobot, this machine is unstoppable. Consistent uniform welds can be run all day long by anyone.” Now with an approximate 40% increase in production, the organization is well-suited to take on more specialized projects to meet the demands of the fabrication market. With success shown in considerable time savings among other factors, JACOB intends to increase their automation throughout the company over the next seven years.
