Quote:
Originally Posted by Adeets
Quality is a by product of consistency. A robot doesn't give 2 shits that's its Friday at 4pm and 6 more whatever needs to get welded, your statement is flawed, you don't give a damn if its welded by a human or a robot you just want to know that it's being inspected by a good QA department, and normally high speed NDT is done by a form of robot as well.
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Your statement about proper inspection by a good QA department is absolutely correct - unfortunately I haven't seen many companies who do overseas exhaust procurement that have gnats-ass level QA requirements. Do you tell your customers that their back ordered parts just came in and failed QA because of some little nickel and dime issue that may result in failure and will certainly result in you eating an entire shipment of products or do you just ship the parts out and deal with the collateral damage down the line when the parts eventually fail? It's almost always the latter.
That being said, the fallacy of 'robotic welds' vs. hand welded by skilled craftsmen is that 99% of aftermarket overseas produced exhausts are not robotically welded. They are welded on an auto-tig which is basically a sewing machine for tig welding that requires the operator to rotate the tacked parts by hand aligning the seam with the arc/wire feed. In order to accommodate the imperfections in fitment between part a and b, the settings are cranked up to a high amperage with high wire feed which results in a weld convolution that has a crater in the middle of every single one of the 'dimes' in the weld. In order to make those craters go away and reduce stress risers/leak points in the welds, the speed that the operator rotates the part through the welder has to be very consistent in order to ensure that the next 'dime' in the stack fully overlaps the crater in the prior pulse in the weld convolution. If you look at overseas produced welds, you can usually spot 10-50 areas in a single exhaust where the part was rotated too fast and the crater in the middle of the weld convolution is exposed.
So even in semi-automated overseas TIG welding, you're going to get a reduction in quality and potential for weld failure. Additionally, often times the parts are MIG welded with mild steel wire prior to TIG welding over the tacks using 308 filler wire. Run a magnet along a weld seam from an overseas part and there's a very good chance that it'll stick to every spot where the parts were tacked. The other 'trick' that a lot of these companies employ is to mig weld the entire exhaust, then polish it, and then simply go over the welds with the auto-tig in order to make the welds 'look' like a tig welded joint. This effectively doubles the impact of heating/cooling the part and is one of the other reasons why overseas exhausts often do not fit the vehicle properly.
I've seen a lot of this, worked for companies who do work overseas and I've visited a number of factories where this type of exhaust construction work is done. And I'd never employ that technology again. That is exactly why our systems are hand welded entirely. Our guys don't give a shit if it's 4:30PM on Friday either. They take pride in their work and do a spot on job every time.
And if and when you ever have an issue with our parts, the value-add of a dedicated customer support team and commitment to our customers results in the best solution whether you've had the system for 3 minutes or 3 years.
Last point: I have NEVER seen any manufactured parts made in the USA get polished before TIG welding unless we're talking about fabricated Sched 40 exhaust manifolds. And yet, every overseas exhaust is made exactly that way. If you see shiny and TIG welds, don't believe the Made in USA hype.
Just my 2 cents.
Jason