Category: CD Stud Welding

The use of stud welding for shipbuilding and other maritime construction is as old as the welding process itself. As far back as the turn of the 19th century, simple forms of stud welding were developed for various shipbuilding purposes.

By the end of WWI, stud welding began to play a more significant role for industrial shipbuilding of trade and military vessels. Many wars and technological advancements later, stud welding remains a primary manufacturing operation for shipbuilding large and small. Northland Fastening Systems provides a wide range of reliable, high-quality stud welding equipment suited for any type of shipbuilding projects and other construction welding.

From portable automated welding units to highly specified welding studs, NFS has everything you might need for even the largest shipbuilding project. The history of shipbuilding was revolutionized by the development of stud welding procedures suited to the fabrication of seaworthy vessels and other marine components. Today, both drawn arc and CD stud welding are used in a wide range of shipbuilding operations. Some of the most prevalent of these operations include:

• plating hulls and protecting or streamlining other exteriors
• building decking, bulkheads, and other interior structures
• fittings including portholes, hatches, or storage units
• pipe and cable hangers and protection units
• manhole fittings, winches, ladders, and other functional accessory components
• propellers, rudders, steering shafts, masts, and other locomotive components
• connecting lining and wedging joints, anchoring equipment, shell plating, and ceramic backing
• performing repairs at sea

In a nutshell, a broad majority of shipbuilding operations rely on stud welding. Technicians working on shipbuilding projects can find all the stud welding equipment they need with Northland Fastening Systems. Our stud welding technicians provide CD and drawn arc welding services and guidance, and we offer stud welding equipment including stud welding units and welding guns for sale or rent, welding studs for CD and drawn arc welding in a variety of metals, sizes, and other specification, and any other stud welding accessories you may need.

Stud welding operations used in shipbuilding and maritime manufacturing contributes to the construction of small boats for personal use, small to large boats for police, forestry, and coast guard purposes, long-haul freighters and milk truck delivery boats, submarine research vessels, pleasure cruise ships, armed military vessels, aircraft carriers, and many other types of sea and freshwater ships.

To learn more about the use of stud welding for shipbuilding and other marine construction purposes, contact Northland Fastening Systems at (651) 730-7770, or to find out more about the stud welding equipment we offer, contact request a quote online.

Stud welding is a fabrication technique that is critical to a wide range of manufacturing industries. Not only is it used in equipment manufacturing of all shapes and sizes, it’s also an important part of building construction and other large structures. Because of the immense prevalence of stud welding in the industrial world, it’s important to have access to quality stud welding equipment, studs of all dimensions and materials, and comprehensive accessories. That’s why Northland Fastening Systems provides everything fabricators need for their stud welding projects and services.

Stud welding, though an effective and widely versatile fabrication method, requires a lot of repetitive motions. Technicians often perform more than 1,000 welds in one day on the job, and the repeated motions involved in the process can take a physical toll. However, this effect is not the only impact that welding technicians experience with long-term stud welding work.

Impact of Prolonged Stud Welding

Stud welding technicians are exposed to two types of potential physical harm:

1. Physical stress from the bending motions of welding many studs repeatedly
2. Various health risks from the fumes created in the welding process

Of these two, the fumes created with each stud weld operation is an issue addressed less often than it should be. The heat and pressure of both drawn arc and CD stud welding operations creates a plume of respirable metalloid particles small enough to be forced into a radius of approximately 12-20 inches. These plumes can contain zinc, nickel, iron, copper, manganese, chromium, cobalt, lead, and more, depending on the welding materials.

Many welding technicians wear little-to-no breathing protection, and because of this may be at greater risk for lung cancer, metal fume fever, pneumonia, and bronchitis. Some studies have also shown that welders exposed to welding fumes over extended periods of time may be at greater risk of developing Parkinson’s disease. Despite this danger, there are many ways to minimize the potential of physical damage from the fumes and the welding process itself.

How Automation Can Protect Your Welders

Automated stud welding offers many solutions for preventing or limiting health risks and physical long-term effects many welders experience. NFS offers automation capabilities that can change the way your welding technicians perform their tasks. Stud welding units that are automated can greatly reduce the need for technicians to perform repeated physical movements to establish a weld connection. Automation also often removes the welding technician’s breathing zone from the dangers of the welding plume. Limiting the exposure to fumes and the time spent performing repetitive motions can significantly reduce physical harm to your stud welding technicians. NFS provides a wide range of automated stud welding equipment, including units that can withstand harsh environments.

Protecting your workers and streamlining your stud welding production starts with automation. Get started with Northland Fastening Systems today and contact us at (651) 730-7770 to learn more about minimizing the health risks of stud welding and the benefits of automation.

Stud welding is a critical operation for a wide range of construction and manufacturing projects, big and small. Not only does stud welding offer a rapid connection point even stronger than the stud itself, it also creates a clean, one-sided weld that allows manufacturers to build cosmetically-appealing components without sacrificing durability or reliability. In addition to the quality of construction stud welding operations give manufacturers, there are many different types of stud welders that are built for automating and streamlining the welding process. At Northland Fastening Systems, we have several automatic welding tools available for purchase or rental so you can complete your stud welding project with the speed, ease, and durability you need.

At NFS, we have a broad range of quality automatic stud welding equipment well-suited to a variety of drawn arc stud welding and capacitor discharge stud welding operations. From stud welding guns and units to automation accessories, NFS has everything you need to expand your limits beyond standard manual stud welding.

One of the significant concerns of automatic welding is the issue of movement. While automatic stud welders are highly efficient when they perform welding operations within their range of motion, you can quickly lose efficiency when you have to move a welding gun from position to position manually. That’s why the HBS Quick-Boy is a great addition to any stud welding tool kit.

Quick-Boy at a Glance

The HBS Quick-Boy is a stud gun holder and positioning device that acts like the human arm that would be used in manual stud welding. It’s generally suited to the PAH-1 automatic welding gun, but it can also be used for manual stud welding with C 08 and CA 08 guns. Not only does the Quick-Boy eliminate the issue of constant repositioning, it also gives a wide range of motion on three axes so you can move your welding gun to any point along the Quick-Boy’s range of height, breadth, and depth. The Quick-Boy is lightweight and easily attaches to the workspace, offers smooth and clean movements, and has a built-in seating for the weld gun that reduces scrape rates while you weld with tip ignition.

If you work with an automatic or manual stud welding gun over broad areas, the HBS Quick-Boy is the tool for you. It will help you work longer without tiring, reduce risks of back or shoulder pain from overuse, and let you work more quickly and efficiently.

Request a quote for the Quick-Boy or any of our other stud welding equipment and services today, or contact Northland Fastening Systems at (651) 730-7770 to learn more about our automatic welding and manual stud welding expertise and products.

Various forms of welding and metal forging have been around for centuries, but the process of stud welding is one of the most recent welding concepts utilized in today’s manufacturing world. Stud welding today can perform rapid, automated, and precise weld connections with a wide range of standard welding metals and highly specialized weld alloys. Whether you need to build a shelving unit with thin CD studs or put together a component with more structural strength, stud welding procedures offer a quick, reliable method of creating metal-to-metal connections. For high-quality stud welding equipment including tool rentals, studs and accessories for sale, and welding services, look no further than Northland Fastening Systems.

Our commitment to provide stud welding equipment and services is one we’ve upheld for over 30 years since our foundation in 1987. While the processes and tools used in stud welding procedures have changed since our beginning, the history of stud welding goes back further and has seen even greater changes along the way.

The first significant uses of stud welding as an industrial process began during the early 1900s just after the end of World War I. Records of these uses come from shipyards and shipbuilding docks in the industrial port towns of England. The first stud welding tools were simplistic devices that inserted a stud into the tip of a weld-head which could then be lifted away from the point of weld using a magnetic coil.

When stud welding proved to be a much more efficient method of connecting small weld points than other operations, innovative engineers and manufacturers sought to streamline and automate the process. In the early years of World War II, stud welding operations began to resemble what we use today for drawn arc stud welding processes. American engineer Ted Nelson and a few other pioneers in the stud welding industry strove to support the industrial side of the war effort by improving the possibilities stud welding could provide. Their work ultimately led to near fully-automated stud welding capabilities.

After WWII, stud welders continued to provide valuable services to the military, automotive, aerospace, and marine industries as well as many others. The development of more precise, higher quality drawn arc stud welding became a priority for many industry players including those involved in the Space Race of the 50s and 60s. NASA engineers played a key role in the improvement of drawn arc stud welding and the integration of capacitor discharge welding into mainstream manufacturing practices.

Today, we are able to utilize stud welding processes for an exceptionally comprehensive range of manufacturing purposes. To get started on your stud welding project, contact Northland Fastening Systems at (651) 730-7770 to learn more about our stud welding equipment and services, or request a quote today.

Carbon steels have a wide range of uses from paneling and large equipment fabrication to precision cutting tools. The extent of carbon steel uses is largely due to the widely varying carbon content that can exist in a steel type. From carbon contents as low as 0.12% to as high as 2.1%, carbon steel offers a broad difference in properties that is even further widened with additions of small amounts of other metals such as copper, manganese, chromium, titanium, nickel, and many others. At Northland Fastening Systems, we utilize low carbon steel in the form of deformed bar anchors that are key in a number of stud welding projects.

Northland Fastening Systems provides comprehensive stud welding services, including drawn arc stud welding and capacitor discharge stud welding; we also offer equipment rentals and stud welding products. While we stock standard and specialty studs for both drawn arc and CD welding operations, we also supply deformed bar anchors of varying stud sizes.

Deformed bar anchor studs are critical components in drawn arc weld projects where concrete support is needed at the weld connection point. Deformed bar anchors are made from low carbon steels to significantly increase the material resistance to shear tension forces on a load-bearing part.

Low Carbon Steel

For a steel body to be considered low carbon, it must have a minimum of 0.05% and a maximum of 0.30% carbon content. Low carbon steel is best suited for bolstering concrete components and load-bearing parts because of its high strength and low cost. In stud welding projects, low carbon deformed bar anchors are highly effective in strengthening the load and bearing plate resistance to shear tension, both shock forces and constant pressures.

Low carbon steel is also more workable and ductile than higher carbon steels, making it more pliant against stresses. This means it can readily flex with shear tensions without becoming brittle or cracking. Additionally, low carbon steel can be cold-formed into deformed bar anchors of various sizes; the surface can be heat treated to alter its hardness and cosmetic factors, and low carbon steel can still maintain quality even with trace metal impurities.

Because low carbon steel is cost-effective, strong, and easily manipulated, it’s the perfect material to form bar anchors with high-functioning bolstering capabilities at a range of different diameters. Northland Fastening Systems supplies deformed bar anchors at 3/8” to ¾” with lengths ranging from 8 ½” to 60 ½” to meet the requirements of virtually any stud welding, load-bearing project.

For cost-effective, low carbon deformed bar anchors and many other options for drawn arc stud welding and CD stud welding, Northland Fastening Systems is your one-stop-shop for supplies and services. Contact us at (651) 730-7770 to learn more about our options for stud welding supplies and services, including variants of deformed bar anchors, or request a free quote online and get started with us today.